Hiura snaps out of swing-and-miss skid
There have been a lot of swings and misses for Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Keston Hiura in the first 20 games of this shortened season but he found the right time to make contact Sunday afternoon.
After striking out for the 31st time this season in his first at-bat against Cubs starter Jon Lester, Hiura hammered a three-run homer off him in the third inning at Wrigley Field, a key blow in what became a tense 6-5 victory for the Brewers.
The home run ended skids of 0-for-14 and 1-for-21 for Hiura, who has been struggling to swing at the right pitches. He did strike out two more times, leaving him with a league-high 32 for the season.
Hiura has struck out three times in six different games already this season and his other numbers – .225 batting average, .284 on-base percentage, .722 OPS – aren’t anywhere close to what was expected of the 24-year-old.
“It’s a game of small adjustments, where a little thing can change an outcome,” Hiura said after the game. “I think making those small adjustments is huge. It changes your state of mind and bodes well. It’s understanding myself as a player and what pitches I can handle, and work off that.
“Against divisional rivals, who you see a number of times, you get an idea of what they’re trying to do. But my biggest enemy is myself. I need to deal with that and be disciplined enough. I’m trying to eliminate the chase (swinging at bad pitches) and swing at pitches I know I can hit.”
Hiura isn’t alone in scuffling at the plate in the first three weeks as a number of high-profile hitters, including teammate Christian Yelich have scuffled badly at the outset of this abbreviated 2020 season.
“I think, he’s going to go through phases like that,” manager Craig Counsell said of Hiura’s strikeouts. “It started out at the beginning of the year. He went through phases like that last year.
“We’re probably around 300 major league at-bats at this point (394; 436 plate appearances), so he’s going to go through things like this as he matures as a hitter.”
Hiura burst onto the scene with the Brewers last season by hitting .303 with 19 home runs, driving in 49 runs and posting an OPS of .938 in 84 games. He struck out 107 times in 348 plate appearances, a rate of 3.25.
In 965 plate appearances spread over 222 minor-league games, Hiura struck out 204 times, a rate of 4.73. Hiura hit .303 in 84 games with the Brewers last season and .317 in the minors, but Counsell disputed the notion he’s a contact hitter.
“I think Keston is going to swing and miss, and I think he’s going to do a lot of damage,” he said. “I think that will gradually improve as he gets more experience and at-bats in the major leagues.”
Fast pace suits Suter
Quick-working Brent Suter has always pitched as if he is double-parked, but even he was going too fast during an outing July 28 in Pittsburgh.
“That outing, my state of mind got a little too fast, so the game sped up a little bit,” the left-handed reliever recalled.
The result was not pretty. Suter was charged with four runs (two earned) over 12⁄3 innings in an 8-6 loss in Pittsburgh. Since then, however, he has been back on track, stringing together four consecutive scoreless outings, including a 22⁄3-inning stint Saturday in the Brewers’ 6-5, 10-inning victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
“I just kind of got back to getting in the present moment as much as I can on the mound, and have been practicing that, my visualization practice,” Suter said. “Just focusing on the breath and making a pitch. So, that’s been the big adjustment, really.
“Stuff-wise, not much has changed. I’m still mostly throwing that four-seam cutter and then trying to work stuff off that. But in terms of mental approach, it’s been a lot better lately. When I get behind in the count, I’ve done a better job disengaging from the rubber and kind of re-setting and breathing, and then get back on there.”
Beyond working at a quick pace that makes hitters uncomfortable, Suter does something that might seen inadvisable with a fastball that averages 86 mph. He regularly pitches up in the strike zone and does so effectively.
“Part of it is I have some rise and some cut on my fastball,” he said. “I think it’s mostly the cut, especially against righties, that I kind of miss barrels up there. And I’m not like (Josh) Hader where I’m coming low arm slot to high, but I’m a little bit hunched over in my delivery so it’s kind of a different angle for hitters seeing that.
“And then I’m trying to work on getting rise and sink in to lefties. I did throw a couple good ones but a couple bad ones (Saturday) to lefties, trying to like get that same effect, trying to miss the barrel up and in on them. So, it’s more of the movement and deception than velocity for me for sure.”
Negro Leagues salute
Across the major leagues Sunday, teams paid tribute to the centennial of the founding of the Negro Leagues by wearing a 100th anniversary logo patch on their uniforms. The logo was a derivative of the official logo created by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.
The Brewers don’t get to Kansas City much but manager Craig Counsell said the museum is must-see for any baseball-minded person.
“For anybody involved in baseball, a must thing to do when you travel to Kansas City is visit the (Negro League Museum),” Counsell said. “Once you experience that, you understand that celebrating the Negro Leagues and this anniversary is an absolute must. It’s a very important part of baseball history.
“It was a great and unique game that really helped us create this game. It’s cool that Major League Baseball and the players’ association have gotten together to celebrate this because it’s not just a footnote in history. It’s a central part of the history of the game of baseball.”