Red Sox give struggling Dalbec day off
Bobby Dalbec didn’t play in Friday’s first game of a threegame set against the New York Yankees. Dalbec, just 2-for-15 in his last four games with 10 strikeoutsin16plateappearances,spent much of the day in the cage with hitting coaches Tim Hyers and PeterFatse.
“He’s trying to get back some thingsthathewasdoingreallywell a couple of weeks ago,” manager Ron Roenicke said. “Not that we expect him to go on that type of run again. But it was really good forawhile.Itwasreallyfunwatchinghim.”
Dalbec homered six times in his first 10 games, becoming the fifth player in MLBhistory to do so. Nevertheless, cold spells like the one he’s in are expected from rookies.
“A lot of it is pitches that I’m swinging at,” Dalbec said. “I’m letting some good pitches go, and I’mswingingatpitches outside of thezone.OnceIgetbacktomyself and find myzoneuphere and get onarollandgetsomemoreexperience, I’ll bemoreconsistent.”
Dalbec started off slow, too, striking out 11 times in his first 17 plate appearances. But it was then that Dalbec met with Hyers and Fatse, and looked at video from when he was going well in college. The trio noticed Dalbec was getting “a little twisty,” in his words, which then led to adjustmentsandhisdominantstretch.
The strikeouts will always be there for Dalbec. He’s a big-body player, 6 feet 4and 225 pounds. It takesawhiletogethisswinggoing, which can lead to a long swing at times and getting beat on fastballs. He has a 49.6-percent whiff percentage,andhasmadecontact on just 34 percent of pitches he’s swungatoutofthestrikezone.
“I’ve done it quite a bit in my career,”Dalbecsaidonstrikingout. “It used to bother me a lot more. Obviously, right now, it’s pretty frustratingthelastfewgames, but it’s still been a fun, productive last weekorso.”
Ortiz says he had COVID-19: Retired Red Sox slugger David Ortiz said during Friday’s NESN broadcast that hehadtestedpositive for COVID-19, but he was asymptomaticandhasnowrecovered.
“Ijustgotmylasttestyesterday — thank God I tested negative,” said Ortiz. “I had [an] asymptomatic[case],sominewasn’tthatbad. But my brother had it really bad. He had to be in the hospital for, like, a week. He ended up losing about 25 pounds. Man, this is no joke.
“You don’t realize how crazy this is until it hits home. I learned so much about this COVID-19 thing while I was going through theprocess.It’ssomething—it’san experience,tobehonestwithyou.”
Verdugo injures hamstring: Alex Verdugo left Friday night’s game in the top of the fourth against the Yankees with left hamstring tightness. The Red Sox said it was for precautionary reasons. After reaching first on an infield single, Rafael Devers grounded into a fielder’s choice. Verdugo slid into second but came up hobbling. Tzu-Wei Lin replaced Verdugo in the bottom ofthefourthinrightfield.