Boston — For a hitter, finding that productive space between patience and passivity is vital. Nobody understands that more than Spencer Torkelson.
Twenty-two games into the season and he is still searching for that happy place.
“It’s a tough sport,” manager AJ Hinch said. “You go through these situations where, when you are patient, you fall behind in the count. And when you try to be aggressive, you swing out of the zone a little bit.”
Torkelson, who hit 31 home runs in two of the last three seasons, is hitting .190 on the season and hasn’t launched one yet. He started the season going 3 for 21 and went into Sunday riding a 2-for-16 skid with six strikeouts.
“For Tork, connecting with one might be enough for him,” Hinch said. “It could click him right into being on time and hitting all pitches.”
That’s the thing, though; there have been stretches this season where it looked like he was on time and he was driving balls without results. In the first game of the series Friday in Boston, he worked a six-pitch at-bat against lefty Ranger Suarez and hit a ball 322 feet that Ceddanne Rafaela ran down in center.
In the 10th inning, he got a sinker middle-in from righty reliever Garrett Whitlock and smoked it, 101 mph off the bat. But he hit it on the ground, right at the shortstop.
But he looked like a completely different hitter Saturday. He struck out three times and tapped back to the pitcher. The Red Sox have been mixing speeds and trying to pitch him away. He was called out on strikes twice, including a three-pitch strikeout against lefty Jovani Moran in which he looked at three straight changeups.
“He’s been pretty patient, or passive, depending on how you want to look at it,” Hinch said.
Torkelson is seeing nearly five pitches per at-bat and he’s swung at the first pitch in just nine of his first 77 plate appearances. His chase rate is low (16.4%) and his walk rate is high (16.9%). The only thing missing, right now, is consistent hard contact and damage.
“He needs to find a happy medium on how aggressive to be and continue to try to get good pitches to hit,” Hinch said. “Then it comes down to execution.”
Torkelson has been through this before and he’s far from panicking. Saturday was an exception, but throughout this recent stretch, he said he felt generally comfortable at the plate.
“The swing is fine,” Torkelson said last week. “I’m seeing the ball well. It’s just a matter of trusting an approach. I feel like you dig yourself a hole; you want to make it all back in one swing and that’s a trap. As long as I stick to my approach at the plate and trust it, I am going to be OK.”
Hinch has dropped Torkelson down to the seventh spot in the batting order against right-handed starters and on Sunday, he was in the seventh spot against lefty Garrett Crochet, as well.
“This is a tough sport, mentally,” Hinch said. “It’s tough for him to get started this way, but that doesn’t mean it’s not in there. It doesn’t mean he can’t have a really good day today. One of two good things go his way, you can see him take off.”
Tigers at Red Sox
First pitch: 11:10 a.m. Monday, Fenway Park, Boston
TV/radio: Detroit Sports Net/97.1 FM
Scouting report
RHP Jack Flaherty (0-1, 4.05), Tigers: The only issue of concern in his last three starts has been the walks. His 15.9% walk rate isn’t tenable, and he knows it. But his stuff has been sharp, commanding a 93-mph four-seamer at the bottom of the rail and mixing sliders and knuckle-curves off it. Opponents are hitting just .200 against him, .179 against his four-seamer. He’s pitched well at Fenway, allowing four earned runs in 10 innings over two starts with 12 strikeouts and two walks.
RHP Sonny Gray (2-1, 4.43), Red Sox: He’s still trying to get his footing with the Red Sox. He ran afoul of the hot-hitting Twins at Target Field last time out (five runs, two homers in four innings). His strikeout numbers are at a career low (4.9 per nine innings) but ground-ball rate is up (55.6%). He’s leaned on his cutter and curveball a lot early, mixing off his sinker (92 mph) and four-seamer (91.7 mph). The sweeper and changeup (to lefties) are still in his tool kit.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers patiently waiting for Spencer Torkelson to launch in ’26
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
