The first few months of Corbin Carroll’s major league career are straight from the script, a joy ride through the sport’s typically rocky beginnings. He had a .260 batting average with an .830 OPS late last summer. The climb continued this season. Before last week’s series finale against the Nationals, his average was .320, with an OPS of .954.
When Carroll arrived in Oakland this week, he was in the middle of something a little different. It might not even be a failure for most players. Just one week. For Carroll, it was the worst stretch of his career – he had just two hits in his previous 26 at-bats. His batting average dropped from .320 to .277.
Standing near the corner locker in the tight end clubhouse on Sunday morning, the question was posed to Carroll: How do you stay positive? The Diamondbacks star took a second to think and stopped.
“That’s a good question. That’s a tough one,” Carroll began.
“I think the biggest thing that helps is when the team plays winning baseball and you feel like you tried your best to contribute to that.”
In fact, even with Carroll notching a single, the Diamondbacks took three of the Giants over the weekend. It’s a factor that prevents a player from going overboard. Still, he admits there are frustrations.
“Two weeks ago or so close, he had a week of hitting .500, he was on base at .600,” hitting coach Joe Mather said. “Visit teams notice that. They don’t put balls at the plate.
Until the Diamondbacks’ most recent homestand, Carroll was striking out pitches in the middle of the plate 28.0% of the time. In 10 games at Chase Field against the Nationals, Marlins and Giants, that number dropped to 20.1%.
Standing in the box and watching fringe pitches go by can be tough for a player like Carroll who knows how much damage he can do.
“I think they’re going to see (good) with a lot of guys,” Mather said. “… they feel like they can beat anything. And for the most part, you probably can. I think the goal is, yeah, we can hit a single somewhere. But if it’s less than two hits, we can expect it. … You know what, it still takes a lot of discipline to say it has to come to me. We’re talking about Bonds, that’s what made him better than anyone else.
Carroll admits there were days he left the park. Still, he felt there was more to the fight than just a good shout. After all, 20% of the pitches at the core of the plate still leave some give to drive into gaps or fences.
“It felt a little disappointing that I was getting a good pitch and some things were out of place, where I could reach, where I was putting my back,” Carroll said. “That was a little more disappointing than anything else.”
Carroll said the backside of his swing felt out of sync after returning from a brief absence due to a collision with the outfield wall in Colorado in late April. The game took a toll on his knee and when Carroll returned, he felt his body was defending itself and “not letting me use my leg the way they wanted to.”
Much of Carroll’s work to address his slight decline came not in the gym, but in the weight room, where he worked on mobility with an aqua bag on his left leg. “It basically helps your body organize itself and follow the right path,” Carroll said.
Within the first few days of his stay in Oakland, he began to feel the effects of his labor. The first two games there each have a hit on base the other way (his swing is syncopated) and at least one walk (indicating he’s pitching for it).
“It’s starting to feel more normal,” Carroll said Sunday morning. “And we’re going to continue that process no matter what.”
A few hours later, those pregame words proved eloquent. In the sixth inning, Carroll found a fastball at the plate and lined it to dead center for his sixth homer of the year.
Looking at the swing later, there was one small detail that encouraged Carroll. Inadvertently, he dodged the usual toe tap on the pitch. Like every hitter, Carroll doesn’t think about his swing when he’s in good shape, but lets his body react. An unconscious toe-tapping jump served as an indication that he had returned to that level.
“It was a good swing,” Carroll said. There were a couple of other bats that I wasn’t too happy about today. But it was good to get somewhere where you couldn’t walk away from that mindset, that was a success.”
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