Patterson powers Isotopes’ comeback victory
Mechanical changes, new focus get him back on track
Jordan Patterson has taken a novel approach to turning a difficult season around.
In his case maximum effort was the problem, not the solution.
The Albuquerque Isotopes first baseman was in the middle of a walk-off celebration Tuesday afternoon after his 12th-inning sacrifice fly gave the ’Topes a 7-6 victory over visiting Iowa. Patterson also doubled and launched a three-run homer in the game as Albuquerque overcame a 6-2 deficit to pull out the win.
Patterson leads the Isotopes with 22 home runs and 80 RBIs this season, so his Tuesday heroics might not seem too surprising. He’s hitting a rock-solid .297 for the season, too, but it’s a far cry from where Patterson started.
His batting average at the end of April was .188. At the end of May it was .219 and the 25-year-old admits he wasn’t happy about it. The solution? “I made some mechanical changes with my swing,” Patterson said, “but the big thing was to reduce my effort.” Isotopes manager Glenallen Hill concurred. “In a nutshell, Jordan needed to shrink his focus,” Hill said. “He wasn’t just trying to do too much, he was trying to do it all.”
Patterson said the turning point came after a particularly rough game in June. He was in the Isotopes’ batting cage the following afternoon taking some violent swings when hitting coach Darin Everson approached him.
“I was not in a good mood and Everson asked, ‘How do you feel?’” Patterson recalled. “I said, ‘How do you think I feel? I was 1-for-5 last night
with three punchouts.’”
Everson then asked Patterson to relax and take half-swings for the next few pitches so he could get a better read on the left-hander’s approach.
“The ball started jumping and I said, ‘Wow, that feels pretty good,’” Patterson said. “Everson just nodded and said, ‘There you go.’ I’ve been rolling with that ever since.”
If the fix sounds simple, that’s the whole point, Hill said.
“When the process is simple, it’s so much easier to sustain,” he said. “Jordan’s process is simple now, and you’re seeing the results.”
Patterson is coming off a redhot July during which he hit .381 with nine homers, 10 doubles and 24 RBIs. He led the Pacific Coast League in extra-base hits (22) and total bases (86) during the span and pushed his batting average to the brink of .300 for the first time in 2017.
Tuesday’s 2-for-5 performance, which included a line-drive out to third base on a leaping catch, did nothing to slow Patterson’s momentum. The lefty hitter’s two-out, three-run homer off lefthanded reliever David Rollins was the turning point in the game. It came with the Isotopes trailing 6-2 in the sixth inning. Rollins was brought in to face Patterson.
“Against lefties I’m trying to be so selective,” Patterson said. “I was really hunting for a dead-red heater up in the zone. That’s what he gave me and I got the barrel on it. That one felt pretty good.”
Patterson’s sacrifice fly in the 12th made a winner of reliever and Albuquerque native Austin House (6-1), who pitched two scoreless innings and lowered his season earned-run average to 2.00. The Isotopes bullpen did not allow a hit over the final six innings of Tuesday’s game.