DENVER -- Rockies center fielder Ian Desmond hopes hitting the ball in the air becomes a trend. He homered and doubled two starts ago at San Diego. Then on Friday night, he doubled to left field twice and had a fly ball in right dropped by the Phillies’ Bryce Harper.
Desmond led the Majors in ground-ball percentage (minimum 250 batted balls) the last two years while with the Rockies -- 63.2 percent in 2017, 61.6 in '18. He had 22 home runs last season, so when he got the ball in the air, good things happened.
He has reduced the grounder percentage to 37.5 over 48 balls in play after a pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the Rockies' 8-5 loss on Saturday.
Desmond, who didn’t start Saturday against the Phillies and has been in and out of the lineup this week with what manager Bud Black calls “general leg soreness,” must reduce his strikeouts (20 in 70 at-bats), as his slow start had his average at .179 entering Saturday. But there has been improvement in the last six games, during which he's hitting .250 with a .792 OPS.
Here are factors that have Desmond confident that his swing and performance can become more uplifting:
Feeling at home, finally: Desmond suffered a fractured left hand in his first Rockies Spring Training back in 2017. He signed to play first base but wound up in left field and missed time on two occasions with calf strains. Last year, an adjustment in hand positioning in his stance went awry. This year brought another position move, but center field is at least a place he had been before.
“I feel at ease," Desmond said. "Family life is good, I’m settled in Denver. Everything feels normal.”
Aspirations in the air: Desmond is fast enough to beat out grounders, and an All-Star season with the Rangers in 2016 that came while focusing on hitting to the opposite field led him to believe in such an approach -- until the success stopped.
“I was still hitting the ball hard, but it wasn’t getting the trajectory that I wanted,” said Desmond, who doesn’t want to revert to the pull-happy early days with the Nationals, “but I’m definitely having more of that in mind.”
Now it’s safe: Early in his career, Desmond’s Bradenton, Fla.-based hitting coach, Duane Strong, owned a facility that had an Iron Mike pitching machine that could pump fastballs at high speed. When the business closed, Desmond built a batting cage in his new home, but there was a problem: “I’ve got three little boys … if one of them flipped the switch, someone could get hurt.” A human thrower, however, couldn’t produce the speed he needed. But with his children a little older this winter, Desmond said Strong was “gracious enough to let me use one of those Iron Mikes.”
Injury updates
• First baseman Daniel Murphy, who suffered a fractured left index finger in the second game of the regular season, has joined Triple-A Albuquerque for a rehab assignment. There is no timetable for his return to the Majors.
• Lefty Chris Rusin, out since the middle of Spring Training with a back strain, joined the Rockies on Saturday. Rusin is throwing bullpen sessions. He isn’t ready for a rehab assignment, but Black said he is moving toward that point.
• Black still did not announce that lefty Tyler Anderson will start on Monday against the Nationals. Anderson, who is 0-2 with an 11.00 ERA through two outings, threw a light bullpen session on Saturday in preparation for the outing.