Anaheim, Calif. — It annoys him, frankly. And if he knew why it happens every year, he’d certainly take the necessary measures to stop it.
“Every season of my career,” the Tigers’ Colt Keith said Wednesday after he slugged a two-run homer that helped kickstart the Tigers’ 7-4 win in the season finale in Houston. “Every season. All through the minor leagues, I’ve never had a good April. I was really trying to get rid of that pattern this year.”
He didn’t. What he can say, though, is that this March-April was better than last March-April.
Keith woke up on May 1, 2024, slashing .154/.222/.165, before breaking out with .343 average and a .493 slug last May.
He woke up on Thursday, May 1, slashing .181/.330/.250. And the 406-foot, pull-side homer Wednesday seemed to be an encouraging omen for another hot month.
“I am seeing it well,” Keith said. “Just keep that going. Keep putting out good effort, stay healthy and let’s see what happens.”
Since spring training, Keith has been working to unlock his pull-side power. He’s pulling the ball just 25% of the time and pulling it in the air even less (13.5%).
But he thinks he may have found a key.
“I’ve been making a bunch of adjustments,” he said. “And I think lately, the biggest one is trying to get my contact point a little more out front.”
Keith said he reviewed some hitting charts from last year when he was productively driving the ball to both gaps more regularly. He compared where his contact point is now to where it was then and noticed it was two inches behind.
That certainly explains his difficulty pulling the ball in the air.
“I’ve really been trying to beat the fastball to that spot (out front),” he said. “And I’ve been able to see the ball better since then. I need to keep that going. We all know baseball is up and down, and I don’t want to jinx it.
“But I’m seeing it good.”
Zach McKinstry made a similar adjustment last season. He, too, got into a rut where he was hitting a lot of soft fly balls to left field. He found a way to get his barrel more out front where he could drive the ball more frequently.
“Colt is going to get untracked,” manager AJ Hinch said. “This is a carbon copy of last season, except he’s hitting the ball a little bit better than he was at this point last season. Meaning he’s hitting it hard, he’s hitting it to all areas of the field.
“The pull homer is great for his confidence. His at-bats have been sporadic, with a little less playing time. But I think one thing we can rely on is Colt is going to give us a good at-bat.”
Because of the low damage numbers thus far, Keith’s .330 on-base average and overall outstanding plate discipline gets overlooked. His 18.2% walk rate ranks in the top 92 percentile in baseball.
He doesn’t chase (21%) and he doesn’t whiff a lot (23.4%).
“The scoreboard numbers are going to even out,” Hinch said. “Because the underlying stuff is still strong.”
And if the damage-to-contact ratio does pick up like it did last May, Hinch is going to have some interesting decisions to make when he writes out the lineup.
The Tigers have been nursing outfielder Kerry Carpenter through some tightness in his right hamstring, which kept him occupying the DH spot against right-handed starting pitchers during the last homestand. With a smaller left field in Houston, Carpenter got a couple of starts in the outfield.
Keith moved into the DH spot in those games. Keith played first base on Wednesday when Hinch gave Spencer Torkelson a rare start off.
But that’s how it’s been for Keith this season. With Gleyber Torres and Torkelson getting the bulk of the starts on the right side of the infield, it’s get in where he can fit in.
“I will never complain about having too many guys that need at-bats,” Hinch said. “I will find a way to make it work and keep everybody fresh. It’s OK for guys to have days off, especially the guys who play virtually every day like Gleyber, Tork, Riley (Greene) and Carp.
“We are lucky we can do that.”
Tigers at Angels
▶ First pitch: 9:38 p.m. Friday, Angels Stadium, Anaheim, California
▶ TV/radio: FanDuel Sports/97.1 FM
Scouting report
▶ LHP Tarik Skubal (3-2, 2.34), Tigers: He’s coming off a dominating performance against the Orioles where he punched out 11 with no walks in six innings and got 22 swings and misses. He joined Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer as the only Tigers pitchers to post 11 strikeouts with no walks in at least six scoreless innings. His changeup was pure evil. He was ripping it between 88 and 91.8 mph and got 12 whiffs on 19 swings and no hard contact.
▶ RHP Jose Soriano (2-4, 4.50), Angels: He’s had a bad stretch, three straight losses where he’s allowed 12 runs (11 earned) in 14 innings, with opponents hitting .365 with a .423 on-base percentage. He’s got eight strikeouts and seven walks in those starts. Of his 15 walks on the season, 11 have been to left-handed hitters. He features a power sinker (96-97 mph) with a knuckle-curve and slider. He mixes splitters and four-seamers to lefties.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
