ANAHEIM — Mickey Moniak stopped looking at the numbers a long time ago.
His self-evaluation now comes in the form of words that he writes in a journal every day.
Earlier this month Moniak began to write down notes about his at-bats after each game, so he could focus on specific things he was doing well or poorly rather than getting caught up in the results.
“If you go 2 for 4 with two bloop hits, you’re excited about that,” Moniak said. “And if you go 0 for 4 with four line outs, you’re (ticked) off because the numbers aren’t there. … But if I can take a step back and be like ‘No, you did everything right,’ instead of trying to fix something because you think stuff is going wrong, it’s allowed me to see things a little clearer.”
The daily journaling has come amid an encouraging stretch that began in early June.
Moniak still has a .208 batting average and a .588 OPS. Those awful numbers, though, are actually dramatic improvements from where he was when June began.
Since June 8, Moniak has hit .263 with a .770 OPS over 128 plate appearances. Both numbers are better than the major league average.
“When I looked myself in the mirror when I was hitting a buck-fifty or a buck-sixty, I just tried to have little goals to make each month better than the last,” Moniak said. “So far, I’ve been able to do that.”
Manager Ron Washington said he’s seen improvement in his at-bats.
“I think what’s happening more than anything else is now when he’s getting a pitch in the zone, he’s not missing it,” Moniak said. “He’s starting to hit the hit them hard. Earlier, when he was getting those pitches in the zone, he was actually missing them. He’s still striking out a little bit more than he would like to, but at least he started to see pitches, a lot more pitches. And when he gets a pitch he likes, he’s starting to barrel it up.”
Moniak still has just over two months to erase those dreadful first two months. It’s still unlikely he can get back to what he did in his breakthrough season last year, when he hit .280 with an .802 OPS. Even that season, though, contained a stretch in which he hit .171 over 77 plate appearances.
“You can’t change the past,” Moniak said. “Obviously I had a tough first month, not a great second month. Just kind of progressively getting better. The main focus is to take every day, one day at a time, one game at a time, one at-bat at a time, one pitch at a time. Don’t look at the scoreboard. Don’t pay attention to the numbers. Just do what I do on a daily basis, routine-wise, to help us win. And then, come October, we’ll see where we’re at.”
NO NEWS ON TROUT
Angels star Mike Trout was set for an evaluation later on Thursday, so as of Thursday afternoon the team had no news on his sore left knee.
Trout has been out since late April because of surgery to repair a torn meniscus. The injury was expected to keep him out for one or two months, but it’s already been three months.
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NOTES
Brandon Drury and Jo Adell, who had the go-ahead hits in two of the Angels’ victories this week in Seattle, were both out of the lineup on Thursday. Washington benched Drury because Luis Rengifo is now back, and he wanted him to play second base. Washington gave Adell a rest because he sensed he was “dragging” the last couple of days in Seattle. Adell’s seven-game hitting streak came to emphatic end, going 0 for 7 with five strikeouts in the last two games. …
The Angels are wearing 1980s uniforms for a week, through the series next week against the Colorado Rockies.
UP NEXT
A’s (RHP Paul Blackburn, 3-2, 4.11 ERA) at Angels (RHP Carson Fulmer, 0-2, 3.66 ERA), Friday, 6:38 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM