Before the first game of the final month of the season for the Tigers, A.J. Hinch talked about Akil Baddoo. August was a dose of reality in Baddoo's fairytale year. A Rookie of the Year candidate when the month began, Baddoo went cold at the plate, then missed two weeks with a concussion after a collision in the outfield, then went colder when he returned. Over 13 games and 50 plate appearances, he didn't draw a single walk or hit a single homer.
So before Wednesday's game against the A's, with Baddoo stuck in a 2-18 rut since returning from the injured list and coming off a month in which he had nearly twice as many strikeouts as hits, Hinch said "I hope he settles back into commanding the strike zone the way that he did when he was at this best.
"That, to me, would be a small goal for him to finish what’s been a spectacular burst onto the scene."
Then Baddoo struck out in his first two at-bats.
"Just stay positive," Baddoo told himself, "because it’s baseball."
So here he came in his third at-bat, leading off the fifth with the Tigers needing a spark. He worked the count full against James Kaprielian, fouled off two tough pitches to stay alive, then got one he liked and blasted it into the right field seats to cut Detroit's deficit to 6-4. The ball left the yard with the weight on Baddoo's shoulders.
"He doesn't have to carry us, but he can spark us," said Hinch. "We’ve seen this now for a long time. We're in September and he’s been doing this since his first swing of his major league career."
So here he came in his fourth at-bat, the Tigers trailing by a run in the seventh. And there was left-hander A.J. Puk, a 6'7 portrait of Baddoo's demons this year. Lefties have killed him. But Baddoo again worked the count full, then laid off a slider for a walk that pushed Derek Hill to second. Hill came around to score on a single by Jonathan Schoop, and Baddoo followed him on a single by Miguel Cabrera to give the Tigers the lead.
"Just stick with my approach that I had when I had success," said Baddoo. "That will keep me here and doing well. I got too aggressive in a sense. Just let my abilities take over, and remember that I always have the eye."
And now here came Baddoo in his fifth at-bat, the Tigers looking to pad their lead in the eighth. With a man on second and two outs, Baddoo slashed a two-strike single the other way to bring home Harold Castro. It was the 30th pitch he had seen on the night, the most by a Tigers rookie in five plate appearances since Nick Castellanos in 2014. This is the start of the rest of Baddoo's season.
"The handsy homer with two strikes, the walk, the single, it’s why we love him when he’s locked in like that," said Hinch. "His concentration level was really good, and how about it coming after a couple at-bats when he punches out? Maybe the at-bats aren’t over after your first couple."
Before the game, Hinch had talked about the pressure that might be mounting on the Tigers' best young player. For a while this season, he was their best player, period. He rocketed himself into the Rookie of the Year race, then ran into a wall that was literally his own teammate. He limped off the field that night in Baltimore. Three weeks later, maybe he's slipping back into stride.
"I hope he can settle in as he's playing in a month that he’s never played in before, at a level that he’s never played at before," Hinch said. "Those scoreboard numbers are real, and you start to peek at them and want to hold onto them when you’ve made such an effort to get them to this level in his first year."
In the month of August, Baddoo saw his OPS fall from .824 to .772. He went from first among AL Rookies in this category to 10th. Don't look now, but Wednesday's big game pushed him back up to fourth at .785. He's probably lost too much ground in a crowded field -- and Rookie of the Year doesn't hinge on one stat -- but don't count him out yet. Baddoo's got one more month to finish this fairytale.
"He’s a really good player, he’s mature, he's got a lot of people in his corner and he continues to produce and impress," said Hinch. "The bottom line is, he’s trying to produce to win. He’s not trying to produce to impress anybody or make the team. He’s trying to help his team, and that’s a big maturity step in his first year."