Martinez’s Hitting Tip Turns Alonso’s Fortunes Around
It can be scary to approach a slumping polar bear, but once J.D. Martinez got up the nerve, the Met slugger’s bat heated up. A great piece by Tim Healey of Newsday Friday captures how Martinez helped Pete Alonso break out of a deep slump.
“He understands the swing and can help pretty much everybody,” Alonso told Healey. “He has a very unique perspective. Sometimes you need a different perspective to help.”
Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Martinez saw Alonso “pulling off,” or turning his body too much on his swing, so he showed him a drill that aims to get a hitting stroke fixed. That was on May 6, a day that manager Carlos Mendoza didn’t start Alonso, who was in a 1-for-28 rut.
Alonso batted once during that game in St. Louis, lining out to second.
“That didn’t mean much to a lot of people, but it meant a lot to me,” Alonso said. “It’s like, wow, I hit the ball hard to the big part of the field. I was trying to do that. And it happened.”
In eight games since, Alonso is 10-for-32 with five doubles, two homers, seven RBIs, three walks and just four strikeouts. He has raised his batting average from .205 to .226 and his OPS from .710 to .772 during that stretch as well. He homered on Thursday against the Phillies.
Martinez told Healey he noticed the problem with Alonso’s approach a few days earlier, but wasn’t ready to say anything so soon after joining the team. But, that day around the batting cage, he spoke up.
“Pete’s always been very open-minded to it, so I thought I’d take a shot and tell him what I saw,” Martinez said.
I wonder if we can get Martinez around the cage with Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil and Brett Baty.
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