Four times on Tuesday, Eddie Rosario faced two-strike counts. Four times, he responded by hitting the ball hard somewhere and reaching base safely. No wonder Rosario now leads the Twins with 33 two-strike hits.
"He battles. He kind of refuses to give in," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "He's not going up there taking too many close pitches. He's going to go up there swinging, and he has great hand-eye coordination, so he has the ability to go up there and foul a bunch of pitches off, keep fighting through the at-bats, and eventually make something happen."
It's the second time in Rosario's career that he's come through with four two-strike hits in a game; he singled four times in Kansas City on July 1, 2017, too. Tuesday's game might have been four singles as well, but Rosario stretched the first one, toward the right field corner, into a double.
Then he singled in the third and fourth innings, driving in runs both times, and again in the sixth — all with two strikes. Rosario's batting average with two strikes is .232, which doesn't sound like much until you realize the league average when down to the final strike is .172. Also notable: two hits were to left field, two were to right.
"That just kind of happened," Rosario said. "I all the time want to try to use the whole field. We have a big field. Have to use everything."
