Eddie Rosario's changes at the plate have driven 10-game hit streak

KANSAS CITY, MO. – Twins outfielder Eddie Rosario was behind 1-2 in the count in the ninth inning on Friday when Royals lefthander Scott Alexander threw a pitch he liked.

Rosario sent the pitch into center field for a single — just like he's done many times this month.

After getting off to a slow start, Rosario has begun to produce — and he's done it by using center field more. He had two hits on Friday to raise his batting average to .273.

He's not battering the ball like teammate and friend Miguel Sano, who leads the team with six home runs and 20 RBI. But Rosario is the Twins' hottest hitter with a career-high 10-game hitting streak. During the streak he's batting a blistering .395 with two home runs.

The only thing that is cooling Rosario off is the weather, as Saturday's game was rained out and will be made up July 1 as a day-night doubleheader.

"I been trying to find a way to feel more comfortable at the plate," Rosario said. "I have been trying the last few weeks to go to the middle or to the opposite side of the field, and that's what I have been working on."

The numbers on fangraphs.com reflect that. Rosario has hit to center 44.6 percent of the time, nearly 5 percent more than last season and well above his career mark of 38.2 percent. Thinking center field instead of pulling tends to be a sound approach for most hitters. Brian Dozier turned around his 2016 season when he began to focus on hitting to center and left-center.

"I noticed some things towards the end of last season," said Rosario, who suffered a fractured left thumb on Sept. 18, ending his season. "So coming into spring training, I knew what I needed to work on."

A couple other numbers jump out when looking at Rosario's first month of the season.

His strikeout percentage of 16.0 is noticeably below his rate of 25.7 percent a year ago. He's making more contact on pitches both in and out of the strike zone, and his contact percentage of 77.5 would be a career high. It looks like he's sacrificing some power to make more contact.

And Twins manager Paul Molitor said he thinks Rosario's at-bats have been better. Rosario was forging a reputation of being a free swinger, which will encourage opponents to never throw him strikes.

"I don't have the numbers to back it up, but my visual impression would be yes," Molitor said.

"He's got a lot of hits up the middle, some sharply. He hasn't pulled, really, a lot of balls he is trying to stay through the ball a lot more, and I think that bodes well for his swing."

While the Twins got off to a 5-1 start to the season, Rosario was scuffling, batting .125 through seven games. But he's hit .340 since, as his adjust approach began to pay off.

"It was a little hard once the season started because of the cold weather," Rosario said. "Now that the weather is warming up, it's getting better."