Turang's slam comes choking up on a Plan B bat

SAN DIEGO -- Somewhere, someone has a dozen Brice Turang bats that don’t belong to them.

If you wondered why you saw the second baseman on the highlights after the Brewers’ 6-4 loss to the Padres at Petco Park on Saturday, hitting a ninth-inning grand slam while choking up on a bat that looked a little too big and featured an oversized knob, that’s why.

“It’s just like losing a normal package, I guess,” Turang said earlier this year.

The missing bats were supposed to arrive last winter but never did. When it was time to start hitting, Turang happened to have a bat laying around the house that he’d picked up in his baseball travels. It featured an oversized, hockey puck-style knob that made it very different from his usual bats, which had no knob at all.

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Turang solved for the difference in feel between the two bats by choking up, and he went to work to get his offseason swings.

“I started using it and liked it,” Turang said. “Any hitter, if you give him any bat, he’s going to get used to it eventually. They may not like it, but if they use it over and over, they’re going to get used to it. But I liked it. I got comfortable with it.”

It’s not just the bat. Turang added 20 pounds over the winter and obsessed about hitting. That work has paid off; he ascended to Milwaukee’s leadoff position and has a slash line of .296/.360/.416 with five home runs. It’s a huge step forward from .218/.285/.300 last season.

“I’ve definitely worked extremely hard on it,” Turang said. “I don’t think [the bat] is the reason. It definitely helps, but I put in a lot of work in hitting. The main focus was just getting back to myself. Hit low line drives the other way or back up the middle and play the game I have played my whole life. Getting on top of more balls. Staying flatter through the zone.

“You just have to keep going. I can’t go back and change how last year went. It’s over and done with. For that matter, I can’t go back and change how yesterday went, either. The feelings you have toward yesterday aren’t going to help you today. But I knew last year wasn’t how I normally play, so I wanted to work on being myself.”

When he connected Saturday for his 11th career home run and second grand slam, sending a fly ball toward Petco Park’s signature Western Metal Supply Co. building down the left-field line, Turang knew he’d made good contact.

The ball kept flying and flying.

“In that situation, I was trying to have a quality at-bat and hit a long drive. With two strikes, you’re fighting,” he said. “I choke up and just try to make solid contact. … We’re fighting out there, trying to win games, trying to win at-bats. We have a very competitive team.”