Travis Shaw: A Streaky Hitter Addresses Slumps

Travis Shaw was a dangerous hitter early in the season. Heading into Memorial Day weekend, the Red Sox third baseman was slashing .302/.365/.527. He had seven home runs — and a firm hold on a position that opened up when Pablo Sandoval underwent shoulder surgery. Then he began to struggle.

The 26-year-old Kent State product put up a .586 OPS in June, and by the end of the season his slash line had fallen to .242/.306/.421. His power numbers weren’t bad. Shaw finished with 52 extra-base hits, including 16 home runs. He was streaky throughout, though. Prior to an abysmal final two weeks that cratered his numbers — and lost him his job — Shaw was productive. Then, from August 29 to September 14, he went 13-for-35, with three doubles and a pair of home runs.

Shaw had a chance to be a hero on Monday. After coming off the bench and singling in his first postseason at bat, he faced Indians closer Cody Allen with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth inning, his team down a run. He flew out to right field, ending his — and the Red Sox’ — season.

Shaw talked about his mental approach to hitting — including how he goes in and out of slumps — at the tail end of his September hot stretch.

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Shaw on seeing the ball and battling slumps: “I was with [hitting coach] Rich Gedman at every single level, and he constantly said, ‘Keep your head on the ball, keep your head on the ball.’ You hear that from the time you’re young, but you don’t really think much of it. But if you look at video when you’re struggling, sure enough, instead of your head being down on contact, it’s pulling out just a tad. If you concentrate on what he said — just seeing the baseball — everything slows itself down and you put yourself in a better position to hit. Rich was constantly on us about that in the minor leagues.

“Sometimes you get overconfident. You start feeling good about yourself. Your swing feels good, so when you get into advantage counts, you’re like, ‘OK, I’m going to hit this ball 450 feet.’ Then you kind of pull off. At least that’s what it is for me. When I start feeling good, I tend to want to do more. You obviously try to guard against that as much as you can. I’m doing a better job of it now than I did in years past.

“When you’re in a groove at the plate, you tend to feel like you can get away with a couple more things, because your swing is in a good place. It doesn’t work that way. What happens when you try to add on more is that you do less. You end up going into a slump.

“When that happens — when I’m not going well — I try to slow things down. It’s ‘Try to track pitches; See the baseball as long as you can.’ Some guys like to be ultra aggressive when they’re in slumps. Sometimes I do that, as well, but other times I’m like, ‘All right, I need to see some pitches today.’ I want to see where I’m at. When you sit there and track the ball, every single pitch, sometimes that can slow you down and lock you back in.”

On his second-half struggles and getting jammed: “I was worried about the pitch in. I was getting pounded in a lot, and I got too focused on that. I was focusing on getting the head out – I was trying to beat that ball and not get jammed — and when that happened, my head was flying out. I was coming off the ball.

“I made an adjustment. I went back to my strength, which is to try to stay behind the ball. If you get jammed, you get jammed. That’s put me in a good position to hit, and the last couple of weeks I’ve actually attacked the ball even better than I did earlier this year.

“You have to attack the right pitches that are in. I noticed that when I was looking in, a lot of the pitches I was swinging at were balls. Some pitchers can throw in and some pitchers can’t. You have to try to recognize that. When you start slowing it down and tracking a little bit… you look at video and realize a lot of those pitches are too far in. They’re not strikes. For me, it’s a matter of making sure that a pitcher can establish in before I start worrying about it.”

On mechanics and not getting rattled: “I’m not a big mechanical guy. If there’s a major flaw, I think I would see it. I understand my swing. At the same time, I don’t pay too close attention to the mechanics of it.

“You hear someone like Josh Donaldson talk about how his swing works, and there’s a lot going on. It’s that (Bobby) Tewksbary style of hitting. I mean, it works. When you think about the end result, that’s exactly where you want to be. But it’s too complicated for me. There’s no way I could process all of that information. I don’t like thinking about mechanical stuff when I’m in the box.

“I try to keep everything as simple as I can. I do go over scouting reports and look at tendencies. If I don’t feel like there’s a certain area I need to worry about, then I’ll look in a certain area. Not pitch-wise, just area-wise, especially early in the count. If it’s there, I’ll let it fly.

“My demeanor never gets in the way, I don’t get too rattled. I haven’t run into a situation this year where I’ve felt like everything sped up. Heart rate-wise, nothing has felt out of place to me.. You want to slow everything down, and I think my personality is perfect for that. Have I struggled at times? Sure, but that’s not the reason why.”