How Yastrzemski became a great twostrike hitter

Outfielder Mike Yastrzem

ski has a unique perspective about his time at the plate. Before the count reaches two strikes, the atbat belongs to him. With two strikes, it belongs to the team.

“I just go into a grinding mentality,” Yastrzemski said. “At that point, it’s over for your personal atbat and you just try to work counts to get on base. That’s the place I go and try to do it for somebody else instead of myself.”

His stats have a funny way of showing that.

Heading into Wednesday’s games, Yastrzemski led the majors with a 1.125 OPS (onbase plus slugging) on twostrike pitches. He and the Cubs’ Jason

Heyward were the only players above 1.000, unless you round up

Bryce Harper’s .999. Moreover, Yastrzemski’s five twostrike homers coled the majors with Mike Trout and

J.T. Realmuto. Yaztrzemski hit his fifth Tuesday to launch the Giants’ 82 victory in Anaheim, his first career gameopening homer.

Yastrzemski’s success mirrors the team’s. The Giants through Tuesday ranked third in the league in twostrike OPS (.585) and home runs (17), trailing the Phillies and Dodgers in both.

The numbers reflect an industry shift on twostrike thinking. For generations, the mantra was to protect and stay alive. But in an era that accepts strikeouts as a necessary yin to the longball yang, teams would rather have hitters swing aggressively with two strikes on pitches they think they can drive than put weak swings on borderline pitches resulting in similarly weak outs.

Which does not exactly jibe with the Yastrzemski quote above. But nobody wearing orange and black is going to argue with his mental approach.

Yastrzemski struggled some to start August but has rebounded, deflecting fears of a sophomore slump. Pitchers adjusted to Yastrzemski and he is readjusting, a skill that portends sustained success.

He also suggested his approach has matured since 2019.

“Last year, I was a little more jittery and a little more anxious,” he said, “and being in the big leagues the first time, I was overthinking things and trying to guess what guys were going to do to me instead of trying to react.”

Bullpen balance: Manager Gabe Kapler provided an encouraging report on righthander Sam Coonrod, saying the reliever touched 100 mph while throwing to hitters in Sacramento on Tuesday as part of his rehab from a lat strain.

“He was really letting it go,” Kapler said. “That tells us he’s on track to being healthy. I think we would like to see one more appearance out of him. Assuming that goes well, he’ll be a good candidate to come back and stabilize our bullpen.”

And balance it.

Shaun Anderson, Trevor Gott and Tyler Rogers are the lone righthanded relievers, compared with six lefties after

Andrew Suarez was recalled Wednesday. That's a disadvantage against a rightheavy lineup like the Angels’.

With Gott and Rogers off Tuesday, Anderson, who is scuffling, was the lone righthander available and pitched the ninth inning of an 82 victory.

The Giants restored their staff to 14 by adding Suarez and returning outfielder Steven Dug

gar to the alternate camp.

Briefly: Per Statcast, Pablo

Sandoval homered Tuesday on a pitch that was 4.01 feet off the ground, the highest of all 155 of his regularseason and postseason home runs. … Austin

Slater (elbow strain) returned to the lineup as the designated hitter. Kapler said Slater was two to three days from being ready to play outfield . ... The Giants lost former A’s pitcher Andrew

Triggs on waivers to the Red Sox, a week after designating him for assignment.