Norichika Aoki may have been feeling some pressure. At the very least, the Japanese rookie was surely pressing after compiling a .194 batting average going into the Milwaukee Brewers‘ Cactus League game against the Texas Rangers on Monday.
Acclimating himself to a new country and playing baseball against a level of pitching he’s never seen before likely wasn’t helping matters. Perhaps Aoki was also feeling underprepared, with the intensity of spring workouts more than a notch below the workouts Japanese players typically go through.
Brewers manager Ron Roenicke had no answers, but thought Aoki might benefit by trying to relax and not try too hard to impress his new coaches and teammates.
Maybe it was just a coincidence, but after having that conversation with his skipper, Aoki had the breakout performance of his spring (he says the chat helped him).
His bat came to life on Monday with three hits in three at-bats, including a triple, to go with three RBI and a stolen base. Aoki was the only hitter in the Brewers lineup to get a hit off Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish, knocking a RBI single up the middle in the second inning.
Perhaps facing a fellow countryman helped, as well. Aoki certainly seemed familiar with Darvish’s pitching repertoire, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt. “He throws a lot of breaking balls,” Aoki told him Sunday. “He throws fastball, too, but has a lot of breaking balls.”
Familiarity didn’t work out so well for Darvish, who apparently had some tough battles with Aoki in Japan.
From MLB.com‘s Adam McCalvy:
“I’ve always hated facing him,” Darvish said. “The Brewers have a lot of good hitters in their lineup, and he seems just like one of them. He’s a very tough hitter to face.”
Aoki’s struggles haven’t necessarily affected his status on the team. He was slated to be the Brewers’ fourth or fifth outfielder once the regular season began. But with Corey Hart recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee earlier this month, Aoki is likely to be Milwaukee’s Opening Day right fielder. That means he should get plenty of opportunities through the rest of spring training to work on a swing two years removed from a 200-hit season.
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