CLEARWATER, Fla. — It’s a very small sample size, everyone knows that, but Ryan Howard has fared pretty well against left-handed pitchers so far in Grapefruit League action.
Howard doubled and homered against Tampa Bay lefty Matt Moore on Thursday. The homer was a scorching liner to right on a down-and-in 0-2 changeup.
In six at-bats against left-handed pitching this spring, Howard has three hits — two doubles and a homer — and two RBIs. He has struck out once.
Howard feigned ignorance when the topic of him and left-handed pitchers was brought up after the game.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said with a wry smile.
The relevance of the topic dates to late last season when manager Pete Mackanin began sitting Howard against lefties in favor of Darin Ruf. In short, Ruf was crushing lefty pitching while Howard was on his way to hitting .130 (13 for 100) with 40 strikeouts against them.
The topic became hot again over the winter when Mackanin said Howard would have to hit lefties if he wanted to play against lefties. Mackanin said Howard would be given the chance to do that in spring training.
MLB
So far, so good.
“This camp, for me, I've just come back and tried to have fun,” Howard said. “I’m smiling again, just putting in the work and trusting everything I was doing in the offseason. I'm trying to relay it out on the field.
“You have to see (lefties) in order to be able to hit them and make adjustments against them. So spring training is a great time to be able to do that.”
When the regular season arrives, it will not be surprising if Mackanin sticks with the Howard-Ruf platoon at first base. Ruf has had a good spring, hitting .303 with four doubles and three homers in 33 at-bats. But Howard is at least putting up a fight.
“He’s swung it well,” Mackanin said. “It’s good to see. I think he’s rising to the challenge. We’ll continue to get a look at (the first base situation) the rest of the spring.”