Rougned Odor stepped into the batting cage Wednesday with a goal in mind, even if the exact avenue to achieve it was fuzzy. The Orioles second baseman had felt off the night before, striking out three times. So before Wednesday’s outing, the 28-year-old vowed to take as many swings as he could, finding his rhythm once more to continue a hot stretch at the plate.
Odor lost count of how many swings it took — perhaps 100, maybe more. But the end result left Tuesday’s results in the trash and brought Wednesday’s possibilities to the forefront of his mind. He went on to hit a home run, a validation that his batting cage reset had been necessary.
It’s all about a feeling. Odor can’t really explain it — he’s always confident, but some days at the park he reaches another level. On those days in the batting cage, he challenges co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller to get him out.
“We throw different pitches and he will crank everything,” Fuller said. “It’s like, ‘Oh man, he’s matchup proof tonight.’”
There have been more of those days recently than in April, when Odor was a near-liability at the plate. Through April 30, Odor’s batting average had dipped to .180. He hadn’t hit a home run, either, leaving his slugging percentage lower than his on-base percentage.
When the calendar flipped, however, Odor’s season flipped with it.
It began with his first homer of the year on May 1, part of a two-hit day. And it has continued all the way to Saturday, when Odor cranked the first ball off an Orioles players’ bat to reach Eutaw Street this season — bringing him to six home runs in a 29-game span that includes 21 RBIs and a .243 batting average. He’s not lighting the world on fire, but Odor has turned his season around, becoming a reliable contributor in the bottom-half of the order.
And for all the energy Odor brings — between the home run chain and faux-binocular celebration, he brings a lot — the veteran is now also providing a spark on the field.
“Rougy’s up there to do damage,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He’s going to swing hard and he’s looking to drive the baseball. Right now, the pitches that he can, he’s getting to them.”
During the tepid start to Odor’s season, Fuller showed him several heat maps. Those zones displayed where on the plate Odor found the most success, and where the obvious swing holes were. The top of the zone, especially, proved to be a weakness for Odor.
Like many left-handed hitters, low-and-inside pitches are Odor’s sweet spot. Of his six homers, two have come on middle-in placement, according to Statcast. Two more have come on low-and-in offerings. The final two were off middle-high and middle-low pitches.
Odor’s batting average on low-and-in pitches entering Saturday was .750. But he hit .077 against middle-middle pitches and was without a hit on high-and-inside pitches — popping up 71% of the time when he swings at a pitch in that zone. The more opposing pitchers noticed those holes, the more they exploited them.
“He’s getting in the cage, working hard, trying to make the adjustments to help the team win,” right fielder Anthony Santander said. “That’s the most impressive thing. He’s taking all the hard work to the field.”
But noticing the holes in his swing is just one part. Fuller said he cleaned up some lower-half movement, allowing for a more efficient stride on his swing. And Odor has played around with different bats. He has three, for the first time in his career, and he chooses which version to use depending on the matchup.
Against fastball-heavy pitchers, Odor selects a lighter model, helping him reach top-of-the-zone offerings. His preferred top-heavy bats — he has two, with varied weights — are best for sinkers or curveballs.
“Hitting’s not easy,” Odor said. “Especially right now, everybody’s throwing more than 95 [mph]. Normally, before, you see only a couple guys throw 100. Now it’s almost everybody throwing 100. So you’ve got to figure it out.”
Odor has, with an impressive month behind him to erase his lowly April. It all comes down to a feeling he gets when he arrives at the park, an early indication of how he’ll do at the plate.
More frequently of late, the feeling leaves him encouraged.
