Right fielder Nick Castellanos has not looked like himself at the plate this season, but has looked especially lost of late. He went 0-for-4 on Wednesday and hasn’t recorded a hit since June 17. He is batting .185/.267/.296 over his last seven games and isn’t hitting the ball as hard as he has in years past (per Baseball Savant, his average exit velocity ranks in the 41st percentile in MLB).
“It just looks like he’s jumping a little bit,” Thomson said. “He just needs to get back to who he is. Back the ball up, use the field. Swing at strikes. And sometimes it snowballs on a guy. I still trust him, I still believe in him. I still think he’s going to be where we think he usually is at the end of the year.”
Said Castellanos: “The funny part is, I was telling [hitting coach Kevin] Long, when I feel good is when I don’t get results. But when I feel like I’m up there battling is when I’ll flip a line drive or I’ll get something. But baseball goes like that sometimes.”