Rockies' Gonzalez Emerges From Lengthy Power Drought
DENVER (The Sports Xchange) - It took longer than he wanted or expected, but Carlos Gonzalez emerged from a lengthy power drought Sunday. Dropped from the third to the fifth spot in the lineup Saturday, Gonzalez delivered two big hits in the Rockies' 4-3 comeback win over the Mets.
A productive Gonzalez can mean much for the Rockies, who finished a 4-2 homestand with a season-high four-game winning streak. It is the first time they have won four straight since July 9-12, 2014.
Gonzalez broke an 0-for-13 slide with a double in his first at-bat. His next time up, Gonzalez drew a walk against Mets starter Jacob deGrom in what manager Walt Weiss saw as a telling moment.
"The walk that he took, I thought was one of the best signs of the day from him," Weiss said, "because he got in a hitter's count 3-1 and deGrom threw him a changeup that kind of faded off the plate. He recognized it and held up. That told me his pitch recognition's coming back and he's getting in good positions throughout the swing."
On his next trip to the plate, Gonzalez drove deGrom's first-pitch slider over the wall in straightaway center. It was Gonzalez's fifth homer of the season. He had gone 24 games and 99 at-bats since April 16 without hitting a homer; the last time Gonzalez went homerless in 24 games was in 2012.
The homer also ended a career-long stretch of 17 games without an RBI since April 24 for Gonzalez.
"It's been a rough stretch, but it's part of the game," Gonzalez said. "Sometimes hitting is going to look so hard. Sometimes you're going to make it look easy. But in tough moments, you just got to continue to stay positive. I'm going to get at it. I always believe in myself."
Even when he wasn't driving the ball with authority, Gonzalez was getting his hits -- he's batting .295 -- as he tried to fine tune his timing. That's harder for Gonzalez, because he uses a leg kick in his swing.
"It's not easy when you have a leg kick," he said. "Things have to be perfect just to be on time, because you're going to face so many different pitchers with a lot of different deliveries. Everybody's throwing hard these days, so if you're not on time, that leg kick can get you in trouble."
