Conor Gillaspie’s bat has started to produce the line drives the White Sox are used to from the third baseman.
Though Gillaspie homered in the second inning on Wednesday night against the Detroit Tigers, the first homer hit by the White Sox since April 22, manager Robin Ventura said it was a swing in Tuesday’s win that is more representative of the left-handed hitter’s game. Gillaspie tripled in two runs as the White Sox snapped a five-game losing streak with a 5-2 win over the Tigers. He also singled and has raised his average 46 points to .237 over the last five games.
“He hasn’t been swinging as good as we’ve seen him in the past,” Ventura said. “I think he was frustrated with that. He had some where he hit it to the wall and didn’t really get anything out of it. I think he’s made some adjustments. I think last night of him hitting the ball, it’s more on a line right now than it has been lately. So he’s not going to hit a ton of homers, but he’s a line drive guy. That ball he hit into the gap, it’s a little more indicative of who he is and what he can do.”
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Gillaspie believes he has continued to do a better job of handling his struggles. He said after Tuesday’s game he has learned to do a better job of quickly moving on from his performance. Though he has run into some long outs recently and had a few hits taken away, Gillaspie is trying to avoid looking too deeply at the big picture.
“I haven’t done as well as I would have liked to do, but there’s been a couple times where some balls could have fallen and they haven’t and that’s the name of the game,” Gillaspie said. “The reality is, you take one game at a time and 100 percent is flushed down the drain after the game is over, good or bad. I’ve already flushed (Tuesday’s) game down the drain.”
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Gillaspie said he’d rather win and struggle than succeed and lose.
“That’s the ultimate goal getting up here, is to win for your team,” Gillaspie said. “The reality is, after two-years plus here, if you’re not winning it’s not fun regardless of how you’re doing. You can get all the hits you want, but when you’re not winning it’s a tough gig in here. Ultimately we have just got to keep winning, keep competing and putting together W’s.”