By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
There are slumps that can be downright depressing, when nothing seems to go right at the plate regardless of what adjustments are made to a swing or to a stance.
The slumps where, regardless of how much video you watch, little ever goes right when you step into the batter’s box.
And then there are the stretches where, even when the batting average has plunged below the Mendoza line, there is no reason to panic. The confidence remains high.
The latter has been true for Blake Swihart, and he showed on Wednesday night why there was no reason to panic about a sub. 200 batting average.
Swihart belted a two-out grand slam off Zach Logue, turning a 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 lead and four pitchers ensured it was enough as the Rochester Red Wings edged the Buffalo Bisons 4-3 at Frontier Field.
“It’s in there, he’s got really impressive tools,” Wings manager Matthew LeCroy said. “For him to come up big, that was huge, especially with two outs.”
Now, had this game been played against the Worcester Red Sox, then a bash by Swihart would have almost been expected. He is 11-for-28 (.393) against Worcester this season.
Against the Wings four other opponents, the 10th-year veteran was just 5-for-61 (.082) going into that fourth-inning at-bat. That includes a 1-for-18 performance at Syracuse last week.
“That’s something I cannot explain to you; it’s just kind of happening,” Swihart said. “Even all year, even spring training, I’ve been on balls, fouling balls straight back, I’ve been putting together good at-bats. Things are just kind of finally coming back into place.”
Which is why, even with a .180 average coming into Wednesday, he wasn’t seeking out swing doctors or magic wands. After all, he’s been around. This is a guy with just shy of 700 major league plate appearances and a .243 career big-league batting average.
“I know what I can do on the baseball field and I haven’t been too worried,” he said.
His at-bat against Logue was the perfect example of his ability as a hitter. He chased two changeups on the first two pitches, something a whole lot of hitters have done against the Buffalo left-hander.
It’s after working the count full that the mind games began. Does Logue go back to the changeup? Why wouldn’t he? Swihart whiffed the first two times he threw it. Or does he counter logic by throwing something else?
All of that went through Swihart’s mind in the 17 seconds between ball three on the sixth pitch of the at-bat and what became the grand-slam pitch.
“I know he’s going to be in the zone,” Swihart said. “First pitch and second pitch I swing at two really good changeups. In the back of my head, when I get to 3-2, I’m thinking, ‘OK, I know you remember those two changeups.’ He could possibly throw another changeup here but he ended up throwing a fastball high and in and I just reacted to it.”
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Swihart crushed the pitch, driving it over the left field fence and into the party tent on the plaza.
When you’re thinking changeup, reacting to the fastball isn’t easy.
“He has a sneaky fastball and it’s a really good changeup and it’s hard to just sit on one pitch with him,” Swihart said. “You can sit changeup and you’re probably going to get it at some point in the at-bat but he can blow three straight fastballs by you.”
The slam erased the 2-0 lead Buffalo built in the top of the inning against Wings starter Sterling Sharp, and it rejuvenated the right-hander when he went back out for the fourth.
“That’s a momentum-shifter,” LeCroy said. “He gives up a couple runs, he feels like his outing hasn’t gone well. Then we pick up a four-spot and we take the lead and you saw what happened, his stuff got better.”
Sharp allowed just two runs, four hits and struck out eight in his six innings. Alberto Baldonado gave up one run in his one inning, Nicky Goody closed out the eighth and Dakota Bacus pitched a shutdown ninth for his fourth save.
Bacus allowed the game-winning home run in the ninth inning on Tuesday when the Bisons rallied to win 3-2. He was right back on the mound to earn the save on Wednesday.
Unlike some organizations, like the Minnesota Twins in recent years when they stocked the Rochester roster, the Washington Nationals allow their Triple-A pitchers to work back-to-back nights.
“I think it’s great, especially at this level,” LeCroy said, “where you can have a couple guys that can finish ball games and if it does go well or it doesn’t go well, you can put them back out there the next day.
“A lot of organizations do it differently. I like the way we do it here. I think it prepares these guys a little bit better. When they get called up, a manager may ask them to go back-to-back and even get up for a third day.”
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