Ender Inciarte concedes he’s a perfectionist, and Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer said Inciarte “beats himself up” if he struggles with his consistency even during batting practice.
So try to imagine what Inciarte was like for most of the past month, while hitting .198 (21-for-106) with just four extra-base hits, two RBIs and a .267 on-base percentage in his first 27 games back from the disabled list after straining a hamstring in the third game of the season and missing five weeks.
“It was really frustrating for me,” Inciarte said. “To be honest, I was hoping that when I got back I was going to be swinging it from the beginning, but I was lost. I mean, it took me a long time to realize what I was doing wrong. I know it’s a long season and sometimes I’m not going to have good games, but I had a lot of bad games in a row, and that doesn’t feel good.
“So I made a couple of adjustments and they’ve been working for me, and hopefully I’m going to be more consistent from now on.”
To the relief of both men, the speedy center fielder has looked more like himself recently, going 8-for-17 with three extra-base hits, four runs and two RBIs in his past four games before Saturday, including two Braves wins.
“I am (a perfectionist), and I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” said Inciarte, the Braves’ primary leadoff hitter. “Every day when I work, I try to be perfect, in flips or BP. I don’t think that’s a lot of competition, so I don’t let myself fail in BP or flips, and I think that’s a big part of being consistent – if you can be the same guy every day with your preparation, you’re going to be able to be more consistent in the game.”
Seitzer said Inciarte is so hard on himself that if he had two bad at-bats in a span of 10, he’d be upset. They began working last week on a flaw that Seitzer noticed in Inciarte’s approach. Seitzer said he was waiting a bit too long on pitches, worrying too much about being fooled by certain pitches and as a result being late on hittable fastballs when he waited to react.
He wanted Inciarte to be ready to swing, to start his swing earlier even if that meant being fooled occasionally by, say, a slider that looked the same as a fastball coming out of the pitcher’s hand.
“I feel a little bit different mentally (in recent days),” Inciarte said. “I struggled a lot the first couple of months, trying to do too much. Now I’m just trying to see the ball and be more aggressive, and it’s giving me good results. I talk to Seitzer all the time and he’s been working with me in the cage. We’re just trying to get it ready, be early and see the ball and just try and let it fly….
“I’m normally a hitter who sees the ball for a long period of time (before swinging), but before when I was trying to see the ball I was seeing it for too long and then trying to react, so I wasn’t able to put a good swing on the baseball. So right now I’m trying to be ready early and swing it.”
