BOSTON -- After the shine of Bobby Dalbec's thrilling debut, which included a home run as his first Major League hit, the No. 3 Red Sox prospect, as ranked by MLB Pipeline, went into a serious funk for the next several days.
Then came Saturday night, when Dalbec finally had some answers to his recent rut, aiding the Red Sox on a night they scored a 9-8, walk-off win over the Blue Jays in the bottom of the ninth.
Batting ninth -- a spot he had probably never hit in his baseball life -- the slugger mauled a solo homer to left field in the second inning. It was the third of the three long balls Boston hit in that exciting frame, and it was a missile.
Dalbec ripped it an exit velocity of 110.2 mph and a projected distance of 373 feet, clearing the fabled Green Monster for the first time. It was one of those hits that would clearly be a homer in 29 other parks, but it was hit so hard that there was a chance that 37-foot- Monster could knock it back into play. Dalbec was fortunate this time.
“Yeah, it was borderline,” said Dalbec. “I was trying to book it, but I kind of heard it clang up there and took a peek, so I’m glad it got over. It felt nice.”
Dalbec’s first MLB homer on Sunday was scorched down the right-field line. On Saturday, Dalbec followed his Monster shot with a single to right and then a well-struck flyout (104.6 mph, 371 feet). He also made a nice diving stab at first base to take a hit away from Jonathan Villar.
As Dalbec will see firsthand as his career progresses, it isn’t just the young guys who go cold. Even an All-Star like Xander Bogaerts can completely lose his feel at the plate.
When Bogaerts stepped to the plate with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth, he had just three hits in his previous 24 at-bats. Then he turned on a 3-2 slider from Anthony Bass and mauled it over the Monster at a projected distance of 412 feet to tie the game. The Red Sox wound up winning a few minutes later on a fielder’s choice grounder by Yairo Muñoz in which Christian Vázquez scored on a wide throw to the plate by third baseman Travis Shaw.
“You could see he was a little bit off, even in at-bats previous to that, so good for him,” Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said of Bogaerts. “Hopefully, he’s locked in again. And he’s done a nice job for us, so when he gets a little messed up for a couple days, that’s no big deal.”
A hitter with the track record and swing Bogaerts has will generally always emerge from a slump in a minimal amount of time.
For young players like Dalbec, who is in his first week as a Major Leaguer, the process can be much trickier.
“This is a strange game where you can feel really bad and then the next thing you know, you’re a hero,” Roenicke said. “So good to see him get that. Hopefully, that relaxes him some.”
The performance undoubtedly took some weight off the 25-year-old’s shoulders. After Sunday’s two-hit debut came the dry spell leading into Saturday, which added up to 0-for-14 with nine strikeouts.
“It felt good,” Dalbec said. “I just made a couple of tweaks, timing stuff, and stopped pressing a little bit. It felt good to get that one today.”
Instead of letting his struggles snowball, Dalbec was able to bounce back.
First, it was a matter of clearing the mental hurdle.
“I think I did a better job handling it than I have in the past,” Dalbec said. “Obviously, it was pretty tough, but I just tried to stay mentally tough and grind through it. Those things happen. Not the last time something like that is going to happen, so I just have to get better with dealing with it and getting ahead of it quicker.”
Second, he had to fix the hitch in his swing that was leading to all the strikeouts. And that was accomplished through the work he did behind the scenes with hitting coaches Tim Hyers and Pete Fatse.
“I was kind of getting stuck on my backside, and I was spinning and tying myself up,” said Dalbec. “I was seeing the ball well -- that’s what was even more frustrating -- but I just wasn’t capable of putting a good swing on it. I was just a little twisty, and I think I’ve got it ironed out now. So I just have to stay on top of it and continue to get better.”