Goldschmidt’s offensive revival is no surprise to Lovullo and staff
Jun 11, 2018, 6:17 PM | Updated: 8:15 pm
Arizona Diamondbacks' Paul Goldschmidt drives in a run with a triple against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning of a baseball game Monday, April 9, 2018, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks’ first baseman Paul Goldschmidt was named NL Player of the Week after hitting .640 from the plate with a .690 OBP and slugging 1.440 with 16 hits, including six doubles, one triple and four home runs, 11 RBI and a 2.130 OPS in 25 at-bats over the last seven days.
This was the second time in his career that Goldschmidt has received the award. It came during his longest offensive slump as a Major League player.
Goldschmidt broke out of a 48-game slump, which saw him hit .198/.320/.355 with five home runs, 13 RBI and 34 hits in 172 at-bats.
But it wasn’t just last week, he’s been doing it since May 23.
Goldy is hitting .417/.493/.950 in the last 15 games with seven home runs and 18 RBI. His OPS of 1.443 during that span is the best in MLB.
“It’s hard to put my finger on it because he’s so consistent and so similar every single day,” manager Torey Lovullo said before Monday’s game when asked about the sudden shift of Goldschmidt’s offense being on back on track.
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“He probably put in a little bit more time paying attention to the small things, the small details, that are maybe as remedial as you can think about. Hitting off the tee, maybe doing one-handed drills, hitting off a machine,” added Lovullo.
“Things that aren’t rocket science but get you back grounded and get you back to that place that you want to try to get back to.”
Lovullo said the Player of the Week acknowledgment was “well deserved” and that he and his staff believed Goldschmidt would return to form sooner than later.
“It was an internal belief that it was going to happen,” he said. “We all felt that way about Paul. We felt strongly that the track record would lead him down this road. But it was the time he spent when alone or with the hitting coaches that nobody was aware of where they’re talking about those small details that I just mentioned that would help him get back into that good swing mode.”
Over the last 15 games, Goldschmidt is tied for first in home runs, second in batting average and tied for second in RBI. He tied a career high with five multi-hit games in a row and set a franchise record with four consecutive 3+ hit games last week in four games over a five-day stretch in two different cities.
More importantly, the D-backs are 10-5 during that span.
Lovullo attributed some of the success to a team effort.
“It’s the common things of getting that fast ball and not missing it, and that’s been a theme for this team over the past two weeks since we’ve been swinging the bat very, very good,” he said. “It’s about not chasing pitches that are just off the edges of the plate or breaking balls that tend to give certain hitters a lot of problems.
“It’s waiting it out and not missing pitches.”
Despite not being surprised by his recent domination, Lovullo still sounded in awe of what Goldy has been doing as of late.
“When you see him hit a ball, and I know the Statcast information said it was the furthest ball that’s ever been hit in Coors Field the opposite way, that doesn’t surprise me. I mean he has been smashing balls all over the place, and for me the storm was coming,” he said ominously.
“Somebody was going to have to pay and obviously there are a couple of teams in San Francisco and Colorado that had to pay for some of what happened earlier in the year to him.”
