Kyle Farmer Finds His Stroke Waits For Teammates To Catch Up

 

 

 

 

Kyle Farmer was a little off on his swing but he went to his notebook to find his stroke and used new technology to fix it into muscle memory.

"I keep a book.  I write down stuff from the past," Farmer said.  "I went back and found I wasn't doing something that I normally do.  My hips were kind of coming up.  We have a K-Vest here.  That you look at it and it tells you how the body moves.  I wan't hitting the fastball like I was able to.  I made an adjustment.  It is still a work in progress.  Hitting in baseball is a crazy game.  You have to stick with what you know and keep doing it."

The four doubles tied a Reds and major league record done many times.  The last MLB player to do it was the Pirates Kevin Newman in August last year against the Brewers.  The last Red to do it was Billy Hatcher in August 1990 against the Cubs.  The last three Reds before Hatcher were Jim Greengrass in 1954, Billy Werber 1940 and Ernie Lombardi in 1935.

It was the first time Farmer had four hits in the game.

"A hit is fine with me.  Anyway you can get on base," Farner said. "It's cool.  Anytime I can get into the record books."

It is obvious the Reds are struggling at 3-15 but the only way to fix it is to keep plugging away and try to get better as Farmer did yesterday,

David Bell pointed that out.  The third generation major league player, who played for mote than a decade just like his father, Buddy and grandfather Gus.  His father was also a manager.  All have experienced spells like this.  "Losing sucks," Bell admitted on Saturday after the 11th straight loss. "It is a long season."

"I mean it's easy with this group, not easy that's not the right word but they way these players are going about it," Bell said.  "The example is Kyle Farmer had a great night tonight was here early working on his swing.  He just found it.  That's what it's all about we have to keep adjusting as a team but as an individual. When they keep working like they do we can get on the right track.  There is a lot to look forward to although it is hard to see it like that."

Two more examples have been the starting pitching the last two nights when big innings doomed the Reds to losses.

Vladimir Gutierrez has a total of 26 big league games.  Reiver Sanmartin has five.  Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo, who was placed on the 10-day Injured List with a back strain, made their first starts this month.

Gutierrez walked six to fuel a four-run inning for the Padres in an 8-5 loss.  Sanmartin was stung for eight runs the night before in a 9-6 loss.

"He continues to throw the ball well but walking that many is hard to overcome," Bell said. "I believe he's on to some things that can make him better than he was last year that's the whole point; keep getting better.  He needs to trust what he's doing. It was a short spring training.  I like the way he's throwing, obviously the walks hurt him but he has to keep trusting what he's doing." w

Gutierrez explained the walks.

"All my fastballs were tailing away," Gutierrez said.  "I think that it is something we've been working on with DJ (pitching coach Derek Johnson) sometimes I move too quickly when I lift my leg.  Sometimes I move to slowly.  I appreciate DJ working with me.  This is something new that I'm continuing to work on."

The same thing happened to Sanmartin.  The Padres exploded for eight runs in an inning where only one or two balls were hit hard.  The rest came off soft contact from batters who found holes in the defense.

Tommy Pham, who hit his third home run of the season and the 100th of his career on Wednesday, saw this from his position in left field.

"Yesterday Sanmartin was making great pitches.  They were just sticking the bat out and finding holes.  I think he had three infield singles and the bloop hits.  He executed his pitches.  He did everything he could on his end.  Right now things aren't going our way.  Eventually when we get everybody healthy and back we'll be a competitive team," Pham said.

"Our last few games, we've been playing good baseball,"  said Tommy Pham, who hit his 100th career home run.  "Use just take away that one big inning.  That one big inning seems to haunt us.  There's been some luck on the opposing teams side.  That's part of the game of course.  You create your own luck but if you look at those games minus that one inning. We're right there in it. We have to keep chipping away.  It's a long season."