CLEVELAND — Cleveland Indians rookie outfielder Oscar Mercado was off to a strong start to his MLB career after posting a personal-best .318 batting average during the month of June, but when the calendar flipped to July, the offensive production took a sharp downturn.
Mercado was mired in a 1-for-25 slump that saw his average drop from .314 on June 30 to .275 on July 14, but over the last two games, he has shown signs of breaking out of the struggles with four hits in seven at-bats, including three home runs, with four RBI, three runs scored, two walks, two stolen bases and no strikeouts.
“I’ve got to thank my teammates for that one,” Mercado said of staying positive through the struggles. “They know what it’s like, and talking to them, I’ve had a lot of conversations with them the last few days.
“They kind of told me, ‘That’s just how it’s going to go sometimes. You’re not always going to be great, or even good. You’ve got to bear down and grind through these situations and can’t get down on yourself.’ There were times I was getting down on myself, but they did a good job of picking me back up, and hopefully, I can keep it going.”
Mercado broke out of the slump in strong fashion during a rain-soaked series opener against the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field Monday night.
Mercado registered three hits in five at-bats with two solo home runs, two runs scored and raised his average by nearly 10 points in one game. Mercado hit his first home run with one out in the fifth inning against starter Daniel Norris, and then, after a rain delay, he put another one over the wall.
Facing Tigers reliever Victor Alcantara with the game tied, Mercado led off the seventh inning and smashed a 1-1 pitch over the wall in left field for his seventh home run of the season. The seventh-inning blast gave Mercado his first multi-home run game in the big leagues.
“That was really fun to watch,” Indians manager Terry Francona said following Monday’s win.
“I think somebody before the game asked me about him, and I said, ‘It’s probably not realistic that the kid is going to go through without a hiccup or bump in the road.’ Boy, did he come out of it tonight. He had some really good swings. He stayed more on-balance, obviously, but man, that was fun to watch.”
Mercado was not done with the home run barrage, as he belted a pitch from Detroit starter Ryan Carpenter just inside the foul pole and over the wall in right field for a two-run blast in a five-run second inning of an 8-0 win over the Tigers Tuesday.
Francona attributes Mercado’s recent success to making a slight adjustment between the series against the Minnesota Twins and the start of the four-game set with the Tigers.
“What happened is it freed him up,” Francona said. “He was trying to hit the ball to right field, so he closed himself off. When you close yourself off, then you spin open. He got himself back to where he could be freer because he’s got really good hands, and you kind of saw what happened.”