Any time Royals manager Mike Matheny is asked about Jorge Soler's lack of production to start the season, he gives a small smile before emphasizing Soler will be just fine. There have been signs that he’s close to showing off his power in the middle of the lineup that the club knows he possesses.
On Wednesday night, the signs turned into results.
Soler went the opposite way for two hard-hit doubles and a single, resulting in three RBIs in the Royals’ 9-6 victory over the Pirates, salvaging a two-game series split at PNC Park and snapping a seven-game losing streak in Pittsburgh dating to June 28, 2009.
Kansas City has won six of its last seven, and Wednesday’s victory guaranteed a winning road trip as the club heads to Minnesota for a three-game set this weekend at Target Field.
“It has to do with belief,” Matheny said. “They walk out there expecting good things to happen. Many of us have been a part of teams where the opposite is there. That’s a tough rut to get out of. But the one they’re on right now, I want them to continue to think that way, feel that way for as long as we can.”
Soler gave the Royals the lead in a three-run first inning by winning an 11-pitch battle with a double to the left-center wall off starter Mitch Keller, who threw 47 pitches in the first.
“That was a great at-bat,” Soler said through interpreter Luis Perez. “Definitely felt good to win it after all and get that line drive at the end.”
Keller was still making some solid pitches at that point, painting curveballs and fastballs on the outside part of the zone, but Soler fouled them off until he got a slider away that he put in play.
“I think that’s one of the best at-bats we’ve seen this year from anybody,” Matheny said. “Just fighting off pitches, laying off the borderline ones. You could see this coming a little bit by how he was being a little bit more selective at the plate. You could just tell he was seeing the ball better.
“You put that swing together with timing and seeing the ball, pitch recognition, and that’s usually going to lead to damage. And every time he walks in there right now, it looks like he’s timed up to do damage.”
Soler added a single in a two-run fourth inning to expand the lead, and the Royals ended up needing almost every one of those runs as left-hander Mike Minor gave up five runs (four earned) through 4 1/3 innings. And then Soler came through again, adding some insurance with another double in the sixth, followed by Andrew Benintendi’s opposite-field two-run double for three extra runs.
If a hitter needs momentum to break out of a slump, spraying hits to the outfield wall is one way to do so. Hitting just .186 entering Wednesday, Soler leads the Royals’ regulars in hard-hit rate at 58.8 percent, which ranks seventh in the Majors (minimum 75 plate appearances). But a lot of those rockets have been tough-luck outs. In Tuesday’s loss, the hardest hit of the game was Soler’s 114.7 mph lineout to left field.
Soler said he didn’t consider his start to the season a slump, but it can be frustrating when he wasn’t seeing the results from the quality at-bats he has been taking.
“It’s definitely a mental test,” Soler said. “You always want to go out there and make an adjustment without getting too crazy with it. But you just have to go out and trust your skill and keep at it. It’s definitely a mental test after a couple.”
The Royals and Soler haven’t been concerned, largely because he has been squaring up balls. His timing has come around lately, too; he struck out 17 times in the first two weeks of the season, compared to nine in the last two weeks.
The same goes for Hunter Dozier, who hit his first triple of the season in the first inning, and Benintendi, who walked three times before his double in the sixth. It’s taken the middle part of the order some time to find its rhythm in the first month. Entering Wednesday, those three collectively have hit .183; the rest of the lineup has combined to hit .264.
“We’ve seen the top third carry us at times, we’ve seen the bottom third really do a nice job carrying some of the weight,” Matheny said. “It’s been that middle third -- and Soler, Benintendi and Dozier all putting together good at-bats, big at-bats, and just kept the pressure coming.”
For Kansas City to get to where it wants to go, the club will need Soler -- and Dozier and Benintendi -- to be a force in the lineup like they’ve shown in the past.
“From three to six [in the order], you’re really hoping that those are going to be RBI producers,” Matheny said. “And they will be. It’s just a matter of getting them into a good place, and today was a great step in the right direction.”