Arenado climbs out of slump with two HRs against Giants

Nolan Arenado looked up as the ball soared well above the left-field fence, then skipped off of home plate with a swagger to his step.

In his first at-bat in the Rockies’ 6-2 win over the Giants on Sunday afternoon, he hit a home run off of San Francisco pitcher Tyler Beede’s 85.6 mph slider. After a rough stretch in July in which the all-star hit .247 with only two homers, Arenado could finally take a deep breath. It was his first dinger since July 20 in the Bronx against the Yankees.

But he wasn’t finished.

Arenado did it again. This time, he launched a ball from the Giants’ Andrew Suarez to center field, 424 feet, to give Colorado a 6-2 lead in the fifth inning. It marked his third multi-home run game this season and the 18th of his career.

“I’m definitely feeling better,” Arenado said. “I feel like I took good swings all day. Even the atbats I got out on, I feel like I took some really good swings. So, I was really happy to feel good again and drive the ball out of the ballpark a couple of times. I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve done that, so it was nice.”

During his slump, Arenado admitted he often rushed forward to try to hit balls. But recently he’s spent a lot of time in the batting cage to work on keeping his back leg planted through his swing.

Manager Bud Black was glad to see his star third baseman return to form, too.

“I think you can see Nolan relax a little bit at the plate and start taking his typical at-bat, which is ready to hit, but laying off borderline pitches,” Black said. “I think when Nolan gets in a little bit of a funk, he tries to hit himself out with swings. And he’s very talented where he can get hits that way, but that’s hard.”

Arenado’s two home runs give him 28 total in his career against the Giants, which is one shy of former all-star first baseman Todd Helton’s franchise record of 29 versus San Francisco.

For the four-time Silver Slugger Award winner, all it took to turn things around was going back to the basics.

“I know if my body’s in the right place, I’ll drive the ball out of the ballpark,” Arenado said. “But I was creating some bad habits there for a little bit. And it was really nice today to see the hard work pay off.”