In the spring, Gavin Lux’s biggest problem was throwing the ball.
Then the regular season started and the Dodgers’ once highly touted infielder suddenly seemed out of sorts.
A month after returning after missing 2023 with a knee injury, Lux arrived at Nationals Park this week with just nine hits in 19 games, a .148 batting average that ranked 10th worst among the majors’ hitters with 50 at bats, and a seemingly dwindling amount of time to reaffirm his place as a core member of the team.
Manager Dave Roberts had not lost faith in Lux, the former first-round draft pick who underwent knee ligament surgery last March after an injury in spring training.
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But Lux’s own confidence appeared to be wavering after his defensive struggles in camp cost him his starting spot at shortstop this year, and his poor start at the plate raised questions about his role as the regular second baseman at the bottom of the lineup.
“Baseball is so mental,” Lux said
That’s why Lux’s pair of groundball singles, in the Dodgers’ 11-2 victory over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night, felt like something much more important to the course of his season.
In a nine-run beatdown that featured four hits each from Mookie Betts and Will Smith, three doubles from Shohei Ohtani – who continues to lead the majors in batting average (.371), slugging percentage (.695) and OPS (1.128) – and a first career win for rookie pitcher Landon Knack, Lux wasn’t exactly the star of the evening.
His first hit came on a bouncing ball the other way in the second inning, finding a hole through the left side of the infield, just his third hit in the last two weeks.
His second hit came on an even quieter contact, with Lux pulling a ground ball that bounced five times before hitting the diving glove of second baseman Luis García Jr. dodged.
Still, Lux’s goals, in what was his first two-hit game since the opening week of the season, carried significant weight.
He came around to score his first time on base, helping the Dodgers to an early 3-0 lead. Then he all but ended the game with his two-out hit in the fifth, driving in a pair of runs – his first RBIs since April 13 – to cap a 4-2 nail-biter in a comfortable four-run Dodgers lead.
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“That second hit with two outs was huge,” Roberts said. “That was a backbreaker for them.”
What’s more, it was the first time in weeks – if not all season – that Lux looked like the steady contributor he had been before his injury in 2022, coupled with his improved defense at second (where he has yet to make an error this year). has made). with his unique ability to hit the ball to all parts of the field.
“I’d like to think today was something he could build on in the future,” Roberts said. “It was a very good step in the right direction.”
It was the kind of night that Dodgers coaches had sensed coming from the Lux; optimistic that despite his poor numbers – Lux also entered the game with 16 strikeouts, six walks and an OPS of just .388, seventh-worst in the majors – his swing was finally starting to evolve positively.
During batting practice in Washington on Tuesday (when Lux was off in the Dodgers’ series opener) and Wednesday, Lux began consistently hitting more line drives to left field — a sign to hitting coach Aaron Bates that he has changed his pre-season mechanics injury rediscovered. .
“He’s getting his feeling back and seeing, mobility-wise, what he’s capable of,” Bates said, noting the difficult physical recalibration that comes with the torn ACL Lux suffered last year. “He’s a nervous man. So if it’s nice to stay the other way on fastballs, or stay through something soft [to the pull side]that’s what you want to look for.”
Lux had also tried to reframe his thinking. He knew rust would set in after a year in rehab mode. But as his early-season slump stretched into the fourth week, he tried to view every little positive, like a hard clean sheet or clean defensive plays on second down, as necessary sources of confidence.
“Especially when you’re slumping, you try to build momentum and hopefully carry that over to the next day,” said Lux, who has started all but one game against opposing right-handed pitchers. “It’s a tough mental game, so you just have to keep going.”
The Dodgers are still giving Lux room to try to get an edge.
Before the game, Roberts praised Lux’s work ethic and said he wanted the infielder to get 150 at-bats before making a comprehensive evaluation on his game.
“Given that he hasn’t played in a year, I don’t think less is a good benchmark,” Roberts said. “I just don’t do that. It’s almost equivalent to a rookie. I don’t want to say he’s a rookie, because he clearly isn’t. But… you need a monster.”
By the end of Wednesday night, Lux had a whopping 72 plate appearances. And after most of the early games were largely forgettable, he finally enjoyed a game of productive reprieve.
“You just have to get on with it,” Lux said. “It will even out in the end.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
