Call it the “Darell Hernaiz” effect — since Hernaiz arrived on the scene he has put together a lot of excellent plate appearances and suddenly his teammates seem to be following suit. Or call it the “Everybody Do The Kurtz” — if you watch Nick Kurtz hit and then aim to imitate, your hitting just got better.
Whatever it is, lately the A’s, up and down the lineup, have been having some terrific approaches resulting in fantastic results. It’s in stark contrast to the season’s first half, when the A’s hitters
relied on their considerable talent to push across their fair share of runs but also often disappointed and frustrated by giving away at bats, runs, and with it sometimes winnable games.
Here are some examples of what good swing decisions, and a solid approach, look like for an A’s team that is fast becoming one of the biggest nightmares for opposing pitchers to face.
“Grinding out at bats”
While you always want to be ready to hit a first pitch “cookie” or mistake, often the best at bats are ones in which the hitter just won’t give in to the pitcher’s attempt to get him to swing at a worse pitch — until you get something you can drive and are ready.
As Tyler Soderstrom seemingly blossoms before our very eyes, we are seeing him take a lot of pitches he swung at the past 2 seasons often “getting himself out”. He has become incredibly discerning, always ready to attack something out over the plate but now also laying off a lot of pitches designed to get him to expand the zone or tie himself up.
Soderstrom leads all of MLB with 42 first pitch hits, but that hasn’t stopped him from also walking at a good clip (9.3%). Up and down the lineup, suddenly you’re seeing a lot of 7, 8, 9 pitch at bats and it starts with not chasing so many “pitchers’ pitches”.
Situational Hitting
With situational hitting, you know what kind of pitch you are looking for and you try to wait for that opportunity. You aren’t just trying to “take balls and swing at strikes,” you have certain pitches/locations in mind that allow you to have a good situational at bat.
A perfect example of this was Hernaiz’ sacrifice fly on Wednesday, his 4th sac fly in just his first 19 games. Wanting a pitch he could get to the outfield, Hernaiz patiently spit on close sliders down and away to get ahead in the count 2-1 and then 3-1. Then he got a fastball up and out over the plate and drove it to CF. He knew what he was looking for and held out for it, getting into a favorable count along the way.
“Take What’s There”
The decision to swing at a pitch up and out and away from you is a bad one if you are dead set on pulling the ball but a good one if you are looking to drive the pitch the other way. Shea Langeliers’ game winning HR in the 10th was putting a great swing on a great pitch to drive — if you’re taking the pitch the other way like he did.
Kurtz has put on a clinic of pulling pitches on the inner half but driving the ball hard, and sometimes far, to LF and left-center when pitchers try to pitch him away.
But probably the best example of the “take what’s there” principle was applied twice this week by Luis Urias, each time batting with a runner at 2B and 2 outs. In a spot where a single was worth a run, Urias took advantage of a big right side hole and took a pitch away to RF for an RBI single. That’s good hitting, it’s smart hitting, it fits the situation and gets a job done the A’s failed to execute so often earlier this season: batting with RISP.
These are just some of the categories and examples of swinging when and how you should — and maybe just as importantly, not swinging when you shouldn’t, not swinging in ways that betray your own goals. Up and down the lineup, suddenly the A’s are doing a terrific job in this area and the results are showing up dramatically almost every day.
Every hitter knows how to swing. What separates good and bad hitters, good at bats and bad at bats, is very often just the decisions about which pitches to swing at and which to let go. Right now the A’s are commonly deciding plate appearances on the best pitch to hit in the at bat, many times spitting first on pitches that a lot of hitters — including A’s hitters earlier this season — will go after. It’s fun to watch and a great sign for the possible fortunes of the 2026 Athletics.
