Move over Aaron Judge, the Boston Red Sox called up the hottest hitter on the planet with rosters expanding on Thursday.
While that is probably a stretch, it isn’t far off, either, since catcher Connor Wong has been on an absolute tear recently at the plate with Triple-A Worcester.
In his last 16 games, Wong is batting .368 with nine home runs and 22 RBIs to go along with a 1.249 OPS. The incredible offensive production is definitely eye-popping, and the 26-year-old explained what’s clicked for him to put together such a torrid hitting stretch.
“Patience, hard work, some luck,” Wong told reporters prior to the Red Sox’s series opener against the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park, as seen in a video tweeted out by NESN. “Just grinding A-B by A-B.”
Half of Wong’s RBIs this season with the WooSox have come over this two-week period, and he only had six homers over the first four months of the campaign. Wong credited the power surge to basically just sticking to the fundamentals.
“I think there’s some mechanics involved, but mostly just taking care of my eyes, like making sure I’m seeing the ball and not trying to be too big,” Wong said. “I found that I don’t really need to swing that hard to make solid contact and hit the ball far. That’s what I’m going to go with moving forward.”
While Wong hit 24 round-trippers in the minors in 2019, this is arguably the best he’s ever felt at the plate during his professional career.
“Confidence-wise, probably,” Wong said. “In ’19, I had high miss rates, a lot of strikeouts. I think that’s something I’ve cut back on this year. Done a good job of that, just kind of finding the balance of missing and driving the ball. Keep working on that.”
Wong’s sensational hitting as of late has raised his batting average to .288 with 15 homers and 44 RBIs on the season with Worcester in 81 games.
The Red Sox have used Wong in three stints this year with him making three appearances at catcher and two at second base. The right-handed hitter is still in search of his first homer in the big leagues, though, and should have a great opportunity to do so over the next month, especially if he can keep his hot bat going. Wong was not in the starting lineup Thursday, with Kevin Plawecki getting the nod to catch Rich Hill.
Along with Wong, the Red Sox also promoted right-handed pitcher Eduard Bazardo.
