Brooks Lee Matured As A Hitter During His Hitting Streak

Minneapolis – Brooks Lee has been on a roll over the last three weeks. His 19-game hitting streak has put him in the best stretch of his young career. The second-year player put up a .338/.365/.507 slash line with three home runs and 11 RBI.

Lee’s only had five multi-hit games throughout the streak, so he’s kept extending it one hit at a time for the most part. The streak has helped his overall numbers for the season, but according to his manager, Rocco Baldelli, the most important thing for him is to see him mature as a hitter.

“He’s got a better idea of what he’s trying to accomplish at the plate as a hitter, and that is getting better over time,” said Baldelli. “You can only be so good of a hitter if you’re going to go up there and swing at a lot of different pitches and swing outside the zone. I think he’s just getting more selective, which is putting him in a much better spot.”

Lee concurs with his manager’s evaluation, especially from the left side of the plate, where his batting average is up .63 points from last year (.211 up to .274) and his OPS is up .189 (.580 to .769). He still describes himself as a free swinger at the plate and not getting reckless, swinging away at the first pitch he sees for each at-bat.

“I think it’s just growing up as a hitter and accumulating at-bats,” Lee said. “For me, I still swing at a lot of pitches from both sides, but left-handed, I feel like I’ve done a better job this year with getting the right pitch to hit. Even if it’s early in the count, I’ll swing, but it’s gotta be a pitch that I can drive.”

Most hitters don’t think too much about their hitting streaks as they're ongoing. Still, for a moment during the Minnesota Twins' 12-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds, Lee had a slight worry his hit streak would end at 17. He went 0-for-2 against Reds starter Nick Martinez, while the rest of his teammates went 7-for-15, including three big home runs in the game's early goings.

“After my third at-bat, I was pretty pissed off but it is what it is,” said Lee. “I mean, if I don’t get a hit, it’s going to happen a couple times. It’s not a big deal. Just go out there and it’s the same thing, reminding myself that I’m going to have a few more at-bats and take advantage of it and not let my mind wander, and just act like I was 0-for-0 for that day.”

Luck came Lee’s way in his fourth at-bat on Thursday. He hit a two-out double in the top of the sixth against former Twin Ian Gibaut, and he ended the day 1-for-5 with an RBI and walk.

Friday’s game was a completely different story for Minnesota’s lineup. They had a perfect game going against them through the first six innings against Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski, a 23-year-old from Missouri with a slider that tops out at 96.7 MPH.

The Twins did get through to Misiorowski until the seventh inning, when the velocity on his fastball finally dipped below 98 MPH. Byron Buxton drew a walk, and Matt Wallner hit a two-run homer that barely made it over the right field line. Knocking Misiorowski out of the game allowed Lee to get up again in the seventh, but he popped out to left field to end the inning.

With the Twins down 8-2 at that point, it seemed like Lee wouldn’t have another opportunity to extend the hit streak to 19. Still, there was a slim chance for him to get up again. After the Brewers put up nine more runs in the eighth and ninth innings, they put first baseman Jake Bauers on the mound with a 17-2 lead. The Twins batted around Bauers in the ninth, allowing Lee to get a single off the lefty and keep the hit streak going.

While Lee kept his streak alive, one hit at a time, he focused on how his swing mechanics improved over the hit streak. The better his mechanics have been, the better he’s been able to see the ball coming over the plate and align his A-swing.

“I’m one of the few people that believes that the mechanics of the swing changes how you see the ball and can change how you chase,” Lee said. “When you feel like you can hit everything with the bat swing, you’re going to swing at everything and not get hits. But when you have fundamentally sound in that moment, when you’re swinging at a lot of good pitches, you feel rewarded about them.”

Unfortunately, the streak ended for Lee on Saturday in Minnesota’s 9-0 shutout loss to the Brewers. Lee was the final out of the game for the Twins, taking a bad swing at a passed ball strike, and didn’t even bother to run to first to give them one last chance to get a run.

It was a step back after Lee’s improvements during the hitting streak. Still, it’s an unforced error in what has been a strong month of June for Minnesota’s sophomore infielder.

“I’ve gotten so many at-bats that I feel like I’m in a good spot,” he said. “It’s just making sure that my right-handed swing, hitting the fastballs that are above 95, and I’m taking pitches that I should be taking. Because I do that from the left side really well, I think, so it’s just going to take time.”

“He’s making adjustments faster this year,” Baldelli added. “That’s just what is; that’s what happens in baseball. Baseball, in a lot of ways, you have to be able to use the experiences that you have and learn from them, and change as a player. And you can see him changing for the better.”