It’s always difficult when you struggle at the beginning of the season because the numbers are out there in plain sight.
If you start off strong, say, hitting .360, then have a stretch where you’re hitting .160, it gets hidden.
But when you start out hitting .160, it’s a bright spotlight aimed right at you.
Nomar Mazara got off to a bad start. It could be because he was working on adjustments and they hadn’t clicked in yet. It could be a number of things. It could be because he was simply off to a slow start.
A lot of all-star caliber hitters haven’t gotten out of the gate yet: Joey Votto, Kris Bryant, and Anthony Rizzo are all hovering around .200. The Indians Jose Ramirez is still at .172.
So, when Mazara got off to a slow start, you just knew a day would come when it all clicked for him.
That day was April 23.
He came into that game against Oakland batting .188. No player likes looking up at the scoreboard and seeing that. He hadn’t gotten a hit in his previous seventeen at-bats. But he got two hits that day, including a double, and drove in a run. He got two more the following day, both home runs. He got one hit, with one RBI, the following game. And he got three more hits yesterday, with a double, a home run, and three RBIs.
It’s taken his average up to .244. That’s the beauty of early season slumps. When you start catching on fire, that average is like fast-rising yeast. It puffs up in a hurry.
In his last four games, he’s hitting .421 with five extra-base hits and seven runs batted in.
If this would have been the first four games of the season, people would be saying, wow, Mazara is killing it. Of course, with Mazara, it’s not can he do this? He can. It’s can he sustain this?
Mazara is hot right now. Too bad his team has lost five in a row.
But, just like players can suddenly find it, so can teams. The Rangers will find. On Tuesday. In Arlington. That’s their next home game.
In the meantime, enjoy watching Mazara come out of hibernation.
When is it Odor’s turn?
Mike Minor (2-2, 3.21) vs. Mike Leake (2-2, 4.30)
Game time: 8:10