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SAN DIEGO — Jung Hoo Lee was answering questions from several reporters in the Giants’ clubhouse at Petco Park when hitting coach Pat Burrell popped his head through a nearby doorway and said, “Sweet, Jungey, atta baby.”
Amid all the Giants’ struggles of late, Lee is doing some of his best work and putting up his most productive month. His game-opening homer Tuesday night was the Giants’ lone run in their 5-1 loss to the Padres, and his 2-for-4 performance gave him a .344 batting average and .936 OPS for August.
After Lee’s homer, the Giants did virtually nothing against Nick Pivetta and three relievers, continuing their disturbing trend of struggling with fastballs, especially those with extra high ride in the strike zone. Manager Bob Melvin noted that Pivetta generated as much as a 24-inch induced vertical break — “I don’t know if we’ve seen that before” — meaning his fastball carried several inches higher than a fastball’s normal downward movement caused by gravity.
Anyway, enough of the science. The basic premise is that the Giants swing through way too many fastballs. They struck out 12 times Tuesday and walked just twice, a disturbing trend of late. On one hand, the Giants are without Matt Chapman, who’s on the injured list, and Mike Yastrzemski, who was traded to Kansas City, both with relatively high walk rates. On the other hand, strikeouts are common throughout the lineup.
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Young infielders Casey Schmitt, Tyler Fitzgerald, and Christian Koss, all free swingers, whiffed a collective seven times and all need to refine their approach to become better all-around hitters. Meantime, Lee has stood out with the best contact rate and lowest strikeout rate on the team.
“Nothing mechanical. It’s more about the thought process,” said Lee, the South Korean center fielder who credited Burrell for assisting him “adapt to the league. He’s always there for me.”
Lee became the second Giant in two days to open a game with a homer, following Heliot Ramos, but after a rare two-game win streak, the Giants were back to their old habits. Not much offense; four hits on the night. Not much defense; errors by Koss and Schmitt and a wayward throw by reliever Carson Seymour.
Burrell has had the tough task of trying to guide and motivate a group of hitters that ranks last in the National League in hits and third from last in runs, still able to stay upbeat through it all, In an interview, he provided a progress report on the Giants’ key hitters, starting with Lee, whose homer was his first in 281 at-bats. Since July 2, he’s hitting .308, among the top five averages in the NL.
“We were very optimistic last year about what he was capable of doing, then he got hurt,” Burrell said. “This year has been more of a learning curve about the physicality of this game, and now you're seeing a really good version of Jung Hoo. He’s using the whole field and is being pretty selective. He's a guy who doesn't necessarily have to hit the ball 110 miles an hour to get a lot of hits. His bat-to-ball skills are always going to be his strength.”
On Rafael Devers, who strikes out way too often (73 times in 202 at-bats since the June trade), but is in the 98-99 percentile in exit velocity and hard-hit rate and has the Giants’ second highest OPS behind Chapman:
“I love him. I think having him is going to make us so good. It's very hard to change teams, change leagues, facing pitchers he’s not as familiar with, especially in the middle of the season. I know the situation in Boston was less than ideal on probably a number of levels, and so getting comfortable here is super important. There’s been some bright spots, but overall, I think he'd tell you he’s working on getting better. He's so dynamic in what he does, he's so gifted that if his timing gets a little better, I think he'll be off and running. He's shown enough glimpses, in my opinion, to go, ‘OK, yeah.’ You can see that he has tremendous adjustability in his swing, his hand-eye coordination is unbelievable. He has a lot of movement, but he can get it timed up. He and Oscar (Bernard, assistant hitting coach) have formed a fantastic relationship, and I'm looking for big things from him. I know he is, too.”
On Patrick Bailey, who’s experiencing his best month at the plate, hitting a not-awful .260, an encouraging sign after he brought a .205 mark into August:
“Patty’s doing a lot of homework on himself and the pitchers, and it shows. This process about being an everyday major-league player is so much about finding out what you can do. We as coaches can do a lot of research, but for him to match up with what we're trying to do here, that's the key. He plays a coveted position, and not everybody can handle it. He can. It wasn’t too long ago he was hitting third in the lineup. It’s his third year, and he doesn’t even have 1,100 at-bats. He’ll continue to get better.”
On Willy Adames, who enjoyed his best month in July but is slumping again in August:
“He's been streaky his whole life, and that's OK. I was streaky. When he’s hot, he’s really hot. Again, we know our park is really tough to hit homers in. You know that as a player, but until you experience it everyday, it can be a little bit of a wakeup call. But he can adapt, he can adjust, and he’ll continue to do that here. He's become a very vocal leader of this group about the way to play the game and how he carries himself, and the hitting will come.”
On Dom Smith, who had a recent 15-game hit streak while displaying tremendous bat-to-ball skills:
“The way he approaches his at-bats exemplifies what it takes to win here. Does he have power? Yes. Is his two-strike approach more important than his power? Yes. He's able to slow the game down and get timely hits, and that's what we preach. When Dom got here, he gave us a shot in the arm, and it's through the way he goes through his at-bats.“
On Heliot Ramos, who has struggled defensively and on the bases but hasn’t let those flaws affect his hitting:
“You'd be hard-pressed not to say that he's been our most consistent hitter. He’s going to continue to get better with age. I mean, he had his first Opening Day this year and is learning a lot about count leverage, about his body, a huge bright light for the organization, development-wise.”