It's #MattyDDay all over again as White Sox continue to reap rewards of Matt Davidson's offseason transformation

Share

To say that Matt Davidson’s new patient approach is paying off would be a bit of an understatement.

The White Sox designated hitter looks like a different batter this season. He showed plenty of power potential with 26 homers in 2017, but in the earliest stages of his 2018 campaign, he’s walking at a prodigious rate — nine in his first 10 games — and sending even more balls out of the yard.

He’s up to five home runs on the season after Wednesday’s dramatic eighth-inning slam, a two-run shot that turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win.

That one swing against the Tampa Bay Rays bullpen won’t erase what was otherwise a miserable homestand for the White Sox, a 1-5 mark in their first six games at Guaranteed Rate Field this season that featured a lack of timely hitting, a glut of free passes issued and other goofs in the field and on the base paths. All that was again on display in the first home win of the season: James Shields walked five batters in the first two innings, the team was 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, and Yoan Moncada’s screwed-up squeeze attempt cost the White Sox the tying run in the seventh.

But after he struck out looking twice — including to end a bases-loaded chance in the third — Davidson said the home run was a nice palate cleanser for himself and the team.

“Came up in some big spots and didn’t produce. I think that’s kind of been the theme of the homestand. We got in positions to capitalize, and we just didn’t do it,” Davidson said. “So I think we’ve all been pretty frustrated. And to come up like that and win the game, it’s huge. It was kind of a frustrating homestand, but it kind of gets rid of it.”

But don’t let those two strikeouts looking fool you, they’re still signs of a positive change in Davidson’s approach. The nine walks in 10 games speak volumes considering Davidson walked only 19 times in all of 2017. But these strikeouts looking show his improved selectivity at the plate, too. While batters head to the dish each time looking for their pitch, Davidson might have been forced to wait until that final at-bat for the best pitch to hit.

He finally got it. And he hit it.

“Teams are going to have scouting reports and stuff like that. Even yesterday, I had three walks. I didn’t play the first game, but against Tampa I didn’t get a ton to hit, necessarily,” Davidson said. “Even some of those strike threes, it’s a nasty two-seamer coming back, it’s not necessarily a good pitch to hit anyway. … Sometimes you might only get a couple pitches to hit, and you’ve got to be really disciplined. And when you get it, you’ve got to do that.”

“One of the things we don’t want him to do is to chase,” manager Rick Renteria said. “As long as he continues to be patient and we know if he gets a pitch that he can manage, if he puts a good swing on it, he’s going to be able to do some damage. We don’t want him to go outside the zone. … I think in this instance, he was still looking to try to get a pitch he could handle and drive. He put a nice swing on it, and fortunately for us, it went out of the ballpark.”

Davidson’s five homers on the season have been an obvious display of his power bat, though it’s worth noting that he has just eight hits on the season, more than half of which have left the ballpark. He’s walked nine times and his on-base percentage is a fantastic .409, but he’s hitting just .235.

This season started as a developmental one for players like Davidson, and it will continue to be one as the months roll on. But right off the bat, he’s showing great signs of an offseason transformation, one that if it continues producing results like this all season long could be the turning point in his long-term future with this rebuilding team.

Contact Us