This story was excerpted from Rhett Bollinger’s Angels Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ANAHEIM -- When shortstop Zach Neto was asked what he thought was the biggest reason he broke out of his career-worst slump and started to look like himself again on and off the field, his answer was simple and to the point.
“Not beating myself up,” Neto said.
Neto admitted he was simply too hard on himself after falling into a slump in late April and early May that saw him go through an 0-for-23 stretch before singling and hitting a game-winning home run against the White Sox on May 5. He's been faring much better at the plate since that day, entering Wednesday slashing .271/.379/.542 with three homers, two doubles, a triple and seven RBIs over his past 13 games, including hitting a walk-off two-run homer to complete an improbable comeback over the Athletics on Monday.
“I just focus on what I need to do and that’s not beating myself up every single day, whether the day goes good or bad for me,” Neto said. “I’m just very thankful for [my teammates] to be open ears. If I need to vent, they are there for me and it’s because they know I’ll be there for them.”
Neto, 25, came into the season primed for a breakout campaign after leading the club in Wins Above Replacement in each of the past two seasons. But he entered Wednesday with a .225/.338/.414 slash line, eight homers, nine doubles and seven stolen bases in 49 games. His walk rate is up, but he leads the American League with 69 strikeouts in 225 plate appearances.
Neto’s also made a league-leading eight errors in the field after making 11 in 125 games last year. So Neto knows he still has things to work on, including not letting his offensive performance affect his defense or concentration.
“I get told all the time that I’m kind of like the spark plug that gets everybody going but I think I was trying too much, which caused me to play the way I was playing,” Neto said. “But it’s the mistakes I need to clear up.”
Angels manager Kurt Suzuki has noticed a difference with Neto over the past two weeks, especially off the field. Neto is usually one of the club’s peppiest and talkative players but seemed uncharacteristically down during his slump.
Suzuki called it human nature for Neto to act the way he did when things weren’t going his way but that he’s working to become more even-keeled and not allow an offensive funk to get to him.
“The confidence is back,” Suzuki said. “And I think just the way he's carrying himself and it's not just in the games, right? It's the little things like out here doing his early work and at batting practice. And even on the mound visits, he's pumping up [catcher] Logan [O’Hoppe] like, ‘Hey, be a wall back there. We got this,’ and doing stuff like that. Those are the little things that nobody can see. But when you're in it, you feel it, you see it, and that’s the next step and taking it. And sometimes you’ve got to take a step back before you come forward. And I think Net's been doing a great job with that.”
Neto has made it a point to try to stay positive even as the Angels have scuffled over the last month, losing 22 of their past 28 games. But he’s hopeful that his walk-off homer on Monday can help energize an offense that’s struggled to score runs.
The Angels entered Tuesday having scored two runs or fewer in their past seven games, including on Monday, when they were no-hit by right-hander J.T. Ginn until the ninth inning. Neto, though, proved to be the hero with a walk-off homer after Adam Frazier broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff single.
Neto credited his teammates for firing him up with a speech before the start of the ninth inning and is happy to be back to his usual self.
“I’m still swaggy,” Neto said. “I’m still that confident person that I am every single day and I wanted to get back to that and joke around with everybody.”