Leon swings into action

Early on, hero role suits catcher

DETROIT — Sandy Leon really knows how to make an entrance.

And right now, he is starting his 2017 season with the same bang, splash and sis-boom-bah that signaled his arrival last June.

So what that his production fell off from mid-August through September, into the playoffs and into the first half of this spring training.

It’s all about the bright beginnings and fast starts with Leon, and yesterday he handed the Red Sox a key win with his game-winning two-run single in the eighth inning of a 7-5 victory against the Detroit Tigers. He’s a Red Sox hero again. We’re only five games into the season, but Leon (who’s played four) sits high atop the Red Sox’ leaderboards with a dozen total bases, five RBI, a .438 batting average and is tied for the team high in home runs — with one.

It’s early, obviously, but Leon’s all about first impressions.

In 2017, he’s making another strong one.

“I’m feeling really good, just trying to help the team by keeping it simple and swinging at good pitches, don’t try to be crazy, don’t try to be the hero, just try to get a good swing in and let good things happen,” Leon said.

It was only toward the last two weeks to 10 days before the end of spring training before Leon began to settle into a rhythm at the plate. That’s true for most catchers, who are used on an every-other-day basis and are much more focused on establishing a relationship with an array of pitchers, many of them new.

But with Leon, it felt different, because the switch hitter had slumped so dramatically in the second half of 2016.

Remember, the plot line of his tumbling OPS from June, July, August and September resembled the slant of playground slide, but with a sudden, even steeper drop at the end: 1.243, .956, .893, .539. And then came the playoffs, when he had one hit in 10 at-bats.

He was flailing then and he was flailing in spring training, too. With Christian Vazquez looking so sharp defensively and whacking the ball once or twice, I all but demanded Vazquez take over for Leon as the everyday catcher.

It turns out that I could have been wrong.

Leon began to hit again, and he hasn’t stopped.

It feels like June 2016 (.467 in seven games) all over again.

“I felt good at end of spring training, I never felt better,” Leon said. “I didn’t play last year that bad but for the first few weeks of spring training my timing was off and then last couple of games I felt really good. Like right now, I feel really good at the plate. I’m starting to keep it simple.”

Manager John Farrell was never all that concerned about Leon’s offense last year, or especially in this year’s spring training.

“Catchers are at a disadvantage,” said Farrell. “We had a three-catcher rotation to start games, and they’re getting two at-bats up until the last two weeks when minor league games (begin), you can take advantage of those and get a high number of at-bats. We just felt like, through repetition, (it helped) to get his timing. . . . But certainly what he did last year, that’s not a fluke, that’s a large number of atbats last year that he was very productive, and to see what he’s doing from both sides of the plate is certainly encouraging.”

The sample size is truly way too small to draw a grand conclusion, but after his bat led the Red Sox to a win that already feels critical, it’s completely fair to give Leon his props.

Whether or not he pulls off the same second-half fade at the plate doesn’t matter.

He’s got it going now, and his manager is satisfied that his trust in Leon is being rewarded once again.

“He’s taken it,” said Farrell of Leon coming through in the competition with Vazquez and overall steadiness. “He’s earned it. We all have trust in Sandy, particularly the guys that walk to the mound, and that goes a long way with getting the opportunity to start, but he’s handled the opportunity tremendously.”

Leon appreciates Farrell’s faith. It adds up.

“I have a lot of faith in God, too, so that helps a lot, too,” Leon said. “I just try to do my job and help the team, whatever I can do, just bunt, move the runner over, just keeping it close behind the plate, doing whatever I can to help the team.”

The Red Sox will take Leon’s heroics when they can get them.

Right now, his hero’s cape fits him perfectly.