Daulton Varsho’s hot 2nd half continues with HR in 3rd straight D-backs game

Playing every day seems to be suiting Arizona Diamondbacks catcher/outfielder Daulton Varsho.

After sporadic playing time in the first half of the season, Varsho has been a consistent presence in the D-backs lineup since the All-Star break and it’s paying off for manager Torey Lovullo.

On Monday in a 6-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Varsho hit a homer for the third straight game, a solo shot in the second inning to put Arizona up 1-0.

You can't stop this man right now…@Dbacks | #RattleOn pic.twitter.com/RnVbpvqqJ7

— Bally Sports Arizona (@BALLYSPORTSAZ) August 23, 2021

The second-year player also homered three games in a row earlier this season. And you guessed it, that came in late July after the break.

Varsho has been Arizona’s best hitter since the ball club got back for the second half of the year on July 16. Varsho prior to Monday was hitting a team-best .342 over that span, appearing in 27 of the D-backs’ 33 second-half games, ranking fifth on the team in plate appearances with 91.

Across those 33 games, Varsho is first in homers (7), runs (17), RBI (17), stolen bases (13), slugging percentage (.724) and OPS (1.168).

“It’s a lot of hard work,” Lovullo said pregame of Varsho’s hot second half.” It’s just continuing to get a knowledge of the strike zone, continuing to look for the pitch that he’s trying to square up and not missing it. There’s a ton of god-given ability when he steps into the batter’s box, and now he’s condensing all of those tools into one particular focus and that’s finding the baseball with a good setup, good alignment and a good finish and it’s yielding very positive results.”

The D-backs led the Pirates 5-2 through six innings before the bullpen gave up three runs in the seventh and another the following inning for the loss.

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