Johnson finding his form at the plate

DENVER -- Third baseman Chris Johnson has not completely distanced himself from the frustration he frequently encountered during the early portion of this season, but over the past week, he has looked more like he did last season, when he finished second in the race for the National League batting title.

Johnson notched a pair of three-hit performances during the first two games of this week's series at Coors Field and entered Wednesday having hit .379 with a .458 BAbip (Batting average balls in play) in his previous seven games. He had an incredible .394 BAbip while hitting .321 last season.

This recent success comes as a result of him halting his struggles against right-handed pitchers. With 11 hits in his past 26 at-bats against righties, he has improved his batting average against them, from .220 to .246. Left-handers have not been a problem, as he has hit .394 against them this season.

"I've been working on a few things," Johnson said. "I'm trying to simplify and keep my bat short. That's worked the past couple of days, but I'm still not where I want to be."