Back in Miami, Ozuna breaks slump in grand manner
MIAMI — Sometimes, a change in venue and time with household is all it takes for a participant to search out their groove.
For Marcell Ozuna, whose household lives in Miami and who spent the primary 5 years of his profession with the Marlins — and who has a profession .293 common towards Miami — some South Florida air appeared to make all of the distinction.
“It’s the former team card,” supervisor Brian Snitker stated of Ozuna’s success vs. the Marlins. “I’m glad, good for him. I imply, he continued to work. He’s had a fantastic perspective, [things haven’t gone] the best way he actually needed issues to, however he is not cashing his chips in, that is for certain.
Ozuna entered the collection opener vs. the Marlins on Tuesday at loanDepot park with an .085 common via 18 video games. He singled twice and walked as soon as within the opener, bettering his common to .111.
But the actual breakthrough got here in Wednesday’s 14-6 Braves win, by which Ozuna homered twice — together with a second-inning grand slam — and singled. Over the course of two video games, the designated hitter doubled his hit complete.
“We didn’t play him in the doubleheader [Monday against the Mets],” Snitker stated. “So I wanted to get him back in there, and he had some really good at-bats off Sandy [Alcantara on Tuesday], and then tonight, [he was] really good. We’ll run him out there again tomorrow. I mean, if he’s gonna get hot and — you know what, you get hot and hit, you’re gonna play.”
And play Ozuna did. It began with the grand slam. With the bases loaded and no outs, Ozuna yanked a first-pitch slider 434 ft to left area. It was going out as quickly because it left his bat, and he stood again and admired it because it soared over the house bullpen, over the seats in left area and over the concourse. Then, he made his method across the bases.
“We all go through these things,” Ronald Acuña Jr. stated by way of interpreter Franco Garcia. “Things happen, right? And he just happened to be going through a bad stretch. And you know, what I told him, ‘Keep your head up, keep believing.’ And now we’re seeing — we’re seeing what he’s capable of.”
The slam was the Braves’ first this season and the seventh of Ozuna’s profession. But he wasn’t completed. Leading off the third inning, Ozuna ripped the second pitch he noticed, a curveball, into the Marlins bullpen down the left-field line. It was his two hundredth profession dwelling run and his fifteenth profession multihomer recreation. Ozuna’s homers had been simply two of six the Braves hit: Michael Harris II, Austin Riley, Acuña and Ozzie Albies every went yard as properly.
“I never [thought] I’d hit more than two [home runs],” Ozuna stated, laughing, “… I have two more years, this year and next year, and then see if someone gives me the opportunity — or maybe this team gives me the opportunity — and try to keep going to 300. [In] three years, I feel like I can do it.”
Ozuna went from being booed at dwelling in Atlanta final week to getting cheered as a customer in Miami. And it is smart. For him, spending time along with his household and attending to make his youngsters — who had been in attendance on Wednesday evening — proud, that arguably means greater than breaking out of a droop.
“Last two years, I’ve been struggling,” Ozuna stated. “I’ve a problem with my household. I’ve a problem outdoors the sector, after which like, a number of distractions outdoors the sector. And then my thoughts do not feel proper. So proper now, I’m feeling good and I’m proper in a method and good with my household and good with my workforce, and I’m good with everybody outdoors. So I’m being [more] chilled out. …
“[Sometimes] I try to do too much, I try to show how — most important for me is to give the best to my team and my teammates and the coaches. And the fans. They pay for — to see me, so sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed and try to do too much, try to show them what talent I have. I just have to relax, enjoy my game and swing the bat. That’s the only way you can be good, swinging the bat.”
