Correa turning corner in fight to 'feel sexy at the plate'
Do-Hyoung Park
@dohyoungparkDETROIT -- Carlos Correa just wants to feel ¡°sexy¡± again.
He is not a man who lacks confidence in any way -- but ever-analytical and stat-savvy, he¡¯s also a pretty self-aware guy when it comes to his play. And he¡¯s very aware that he has continually struggled to find consistent production this season, even as a handful of scattered hot stretches provided hope that he might be putting it all together.
Perhaps this could be the one, then. Correa went 2-for-4 with a solo homer and a sharp single as one of two Twins with multiple hits during their 3-2 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park on Saturday night. Those hits haven¡¯t come easily for him -- so he¡¯ll take each of these nights as a building block in his quest to finally find that consistency.
¡°It's a constant grind every at-bat where I've got to fight for hits, and I've got to fight to just feel sexy at the plate,¡± Correa said earlier this series. ¡°But, you know, I feel like I'm not that far off right now.¡±
That OPS, by the way, is now at .719, after he was one of few Twins to take a good hack against Detroit rookie right-hander Reese Olson and his stifling slider. When Olson fell behind Correa, 3-0, in the sixth inning, the veteran figured he¡¯d be getting fastballs in the hitter's counts.
He took one, then he unloaded on the second -- a 94.6 mph pitch down the middle, at the letters. It ended up traveling a Statcast-projected 425 feet to left-center for Correa¡¯s 11th blast of the season. When things weren¡¯t going as well for Correa and the Twins, many of those hittable fastballs in hitter¡¯s counts would still end in whiffs -- but now, he¡¯s starting to catch up and pull them with authority.
¡°I think I feel good,¡± Correa said. ¡°I'm feeling better for sure. It's always good when you drive the ball like that to left-center. There's a lot of fastballs out there that have a lot of vertical, and it's hard to get on top of them.¡±
After tacking on a 105.4 mph single off reliever Jason Foley in the eighth, Correa is now hitting .270/.313/.587 with five homers in 16 games since his performance picked up on June 8 against the Rays, good for a .900 OPS in that span.
With the Twins¡¯ offense as a whole still struggling to find consistent production around him, Correa knows that he and Byron Buxton will bear much of the outward burden of turning their individual seasons around to spur the group -- and though Buxton entered Saturday on a small, power-packed upswing, he also exited the game with back spasms after the sixth inning.
¡°I feel like when we are both going, things are going to be good for this team,¡± Correa said. ¡°When we pick it up here, our results as a team are going to be a lot better. We put a lot of that pressure on ourselves, that when we play good, we have a really good chance of winning every single day.¡±
Correa hasn¡¯t been able to point out one thing that has led to his troubles. For a while, he reduced extra flexibility and motion in his swing that made him too long to the ball. He¡¯s constantly chased down adjustments as needed, and though he says he has a similar feel to the end of last year, when he ended on a hot streak, that hasn¡¯t translated to it looking the same -- and he¡¯s been working to find that discrepancy.
¡°I haven't felt like I go to a game and I feel like I'm going to hit four homers -- even though I'm probably not going to do it -- but just the feeling of, you only need to go out there and see the ball and just hit it,¡± Correa said. ¡°It's just a constant battle with mechanics and my stance and diving over the plate and all that.¡±
After scares with back spasms and plantar fasciitis, Correa is back to playing every day and has found some electric moments to shine, like his walk-off homer against the Brewers in the last homestand.
Now, it¡¯s translating that to feeling sexy at the plate every day again.
¡°We know when he's feeling sexy,¡± manager Rocco Baldelli said. ¡°When he's tapping the watch. When he's feeling sexy, he's shooting missile line drives all over the field. That's what sexy looks for him.¡±