Crosby trying to get comfortable at plate
OAKLAND, Calif. – Bobby Crosby is still facing some of the same growing pains he dealt with last season when he was the American League’s top rookie.
He’s trying to cope with the struggles the very way he did in 2004: by not thinking too much.
Manager Ken Macha told his shortstop that he doesn’t care if he hits another home run this season. Then Crosby hit a solo shot Monday night against Baltimore for his first homer since an inside-the-park home run July 5 at Toronto, a stretch of 141 at-bats.
“That’s good to hear,” Crosby said of Macha’s words. “I want to focus on my defense. Getting hits, I’m not worried about it. If they come, they come. It’s almost the attitude I took last year, the don’t-care attitude. You’ve got to go up there and relax yourself and whatever happens happens. You go up there and do what you can do and hope the outcome is good. You’ve got to have a good at-bat. You can’t worry about the result.”
Crosby is batting .236 with one homer and six RBIs in his last 19 games and will be counted on down the stretch as the wild-card leading A’s try to return to the postseason.
Oakland has lost four straight heading into a weekend series against lowly Kansas City, losers of their last 18 games.
Crosby’s second season in the big leagues began in frustrating fashion when he broke two ribs on opening day and missed nearly two months. All of his plans to make himself better – cutting down on strikeouts, improving on-base percentage, hitting better with men on base, driving in more runs – took a back seat to being able to breathe without pain and showing the training staff he was ready to take the next necessary baby step in his rehab.
“I was miserable,” he said. “It was tough. And to cap it off, we were horrible. If I was hurt and had to sit at home and watch the team and they were halfway good, I could deal with that.”
He watched the A’s through an awful May that featured two eight-game losing streaks, vowing to help change things once he could play again. He contributed to an eight-game winning streak in June as the A’s got back in the playoff hunt.
The A’s appreciate Crosby’s perfectionist approach to the game. It’s a big reason why he made such a rapid rise to reach the majors.
Oakland signed him to a five-year, $12.75 million contract in late April while he was on the disabled list, but Crosby still went crazy in the clubhouse every day waiting to get back on the field.
“That’s part of what makes him as good as he is, he expects a lot from himself,” A’s assistant general manager David Forst said. “He thinks he shouldn’t have to go through the same kind of growing pains he went through last year. But in the big scheme of things, he’s still a young player and he still has a lot of things to work out.”