Duvall obviously has pull with Wong
Connor Wong has been displaying some power recently.
The Red Sox catcher, who got the night off in Thursday’s series finale, an 11-5 sweep of the Blue Jays, has three home runs in his last three games, and two doubles. During that span, he is 7 for 13 (.587) with a 1.385 slugging percentage, and put six balls in play with exit velocities of 105 miles per hour or higher.
A conversation with injured outfielder Adam Duvall has played a part in Wong’s surge at the plate.
Duvall is a pull hitter and knows that’s his key to success. While a good amount of players think about hitting to the opposite field, Duvall thinks about pulling the ball.
“It’s always been my strength, to pull the ball,” Duvall said during spring training. “So, it’s not something that I shy away from. I think there’s a lot of people who don’t want to necessarily talk about pulling the ball because it can create some holes or different things. But for me, that’s kind of always been my swing.”
Roughly two weeks ago, Wong decided to give the pull-side approach a go, at least a modified version, after speaking with Duvall.
“It’s mostly about not being afraid to pull the ball, and trying to force the ball the other way or trying to be this like, quote unquote good hitter,” said Wong. “It’s just letting the contact points dictate if you’re going to pull the ball or not.”
When Wong would cut off the pull-side part of the field, he noticed that he would have to manipulate the barrel of his bat. Sometimes, the bat would lag, meaning he would get under certain pitches. It’s not that Wong is opposed to the opposite field now, nor has he adopted Duvall’s extreme pull-side approach. Wong is somewhere in the middle.
“It doesn’t mean that I’m not trying to hit the ball the other way,” Wong said. “I want to let the ball travel. I don’t want to hook stuff. I just want to pull the right way versus pulling it the wrong way.”
Duvall, who is still recovering from a broken right wrist, was a key offseason acquisition because of his pull-side power. The Sox felt his swing was tailor-made for Fenway Park, and before he hit the injured list he had four homers that all went to the pull side.
Manager Alex Cora is excited that Wong has spoken with Duvall because he knows that if a team wants to slug, an area in which the Sox struggled last year, it’s imperative to pull the ball.
“We play in a pull-happy league,” Cora said. “Power in this league is pull. The whole thing of going the other way, yeah, you’re going to get your singles, but if you want to hit with power, you’d better pull the fastball. We noticed that last year. This year, it’s the same thing. We haven’t seen too many oppositefield homers here at Fenway or around the league. So, you have to be on time.”
Recently, being on time and pulling the ball has paid dividends for Wong.
Yoshida a Harper fan
Masataka Yoshida will get his chance to play against one of his idols this weekend in Philadelphia, Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper.
Former big leaguer Deven Marrero, who played with Yoshida for the Orix Buffaloes in Nippon Professional Baseball, said that Yoshida has an obsession with Harper, and that Yoshida even named his dog Harper after the two-time NL MVP.
“He watched a lot of big league baseball when he was in Japan and we would always talk about different players, especially Harper,” Marrero said of Yoshida. “When I was there, he was just mostly talking about how good the players were here. He loved Bryce Harper. He liked a lot of the players here and imitated their swings.”
Crawford day to day
Reliever Kutter Crawford exited Wednesday night’s game in the ninth inning because of left hamstring tightness. The Sox are hopeful that Crawford, who is considered day to day, can avoid the injured list . . . Joely Rodriguez (oblique) began his rehab assignment Thursday, pitching an inning for Triple A Worcester. The lefthander allowed one hit and struck out one.