Major League Baseball

Hamilton hopes to start cookin' at home

Published Oct. 29, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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Bob Klapisch

The World Series slump has actually spanned only eight at-bats, although it feels like a million years since Josh Hamilton was taking the Yankees apart in the ALCS.

“We just couldn’t get him out,” said general manager Brian Cashman, explaining why the Bombers went to Plan B in Game 6, intentionally walking Hamilton three times.

To say the plan backfired is only the Disney-rated explanation. The Rangers not only embarrassed the defending world champs, a message was delivered to the Giants, too: Pitch to Hamilton or side-step him, it’ll cost you either way.

Or so the Rangers thought.

Two games into the Fall Classic, Hamilton hasn’t been as much a disappointment as a mystery, managing just a seventh-inning single that evaporated while the Rangers were being nuked, 9-0. Hamilton has otherwise only hinted at his earlier triumphs, his timing just off, a fraction of a second too slow or hitting the ball an inch away from the sweet spot.

That was the case in the eighth inning of Game 2, when he lifted a massive fly ball to straight-away center off Javier Lopez, ending what was, at the time, a Rangers mini-threat.

A week ago that fly ball might’ve cleared the wall in either Yankee Stadium or Rangers Ballpark. But AT&T Park’s less forgiving dimensions, not to mention the law of averages, finally did what no one else could this season: contain the American League’s best left-handed hitter.

“There’s some things we’re going to work on, (but) we’re confident that we’re gong to be OK at home (in Game 3).” Hamilton said as the Rangers were packing up Thursday night. “We still feel like we’re in this Series, but we obviously have to hit the ball better.”

Hamilton, of course, was talking about himself. He led the majors with a .359 average, amassing 32 homers and 100 RBI, despite missing 24 games with a fractured rib. Hamilton was also the MVP of the AL Championship Series, which made it easy for outsiders to assume the Rangers would roll over the Giants the way they did the Yankees and Rays.

But Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain were both exceptionally cautious with Hamilton. Lincecum, in particular, made sure to finesse his way through the first-inning at-bat in Game 1: three of the five pitches he threw were change-ups, which clearly frustrated Hamilton. He ended the inning with a harmless grounder to first, setting the tone for subsequent plate appearances.

In all, Lincecum threw just three fastballs in three at-bats against Hamilton, including the encounter in the fifth inning when the Giants right-hander threw four consecutive sliders. Hamilton, over-eager throughout, bounced back to the box.

Cain was just as wary the next night. After showing his fastball in the first two at-bats against Hamilton, the Giants hurler abandoned it altogether in the sixth, relying strictly on change-ups and his slider.

Ironically, Hamilton foiled Cain by launching a single to right, his only success to date in the Series. Does that mean Hamilton and the Rangers are overdue? Logic says so. Texas’ .288 average at home during the regular season was the highest in the American League; its 430 runs were second only to the Yankees’ output in the Bronx.

In terms of park factors in 2010, Rangers Ballpark was seventh in the majors for home runs; AT&T Park was 20th. The disparity for base hits was even greater. Rangers Ballpark was fourth, AT&T Park was 21st.

The rankings merely re-affirm what scouts and opposing players have said for years about the two venues. Hitters simply feel more comfortable in Arlington than they do in San Francisco. For one, the Giants play in a bigger structure and the Rangers — Hamilton included — may very well have been pressing to adjust to the different dimensions.

How else to explain Texas’ 0-11 record in the place where Journey blasts out of the PA system every inning, it seems, and where Tony Bennett, all 84 years of him, shows up to sing the national anthem and God Bless America. Forget about physical incongruities, the cultural difference alone is enough to freak out a good ol' boy like Hamilton.

He’s about the last person who would’ve been amused by the heavy scent of marijuana wafting from the center-field stands Wednesday night. Hamilton, who is in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, told the New York Post, “Weed, no, that wasn't my deal. {But) it was crazy. I was looking at the cops a couple of times during the game."

The slugger added, “my wife and I were walking down the street (Tuesday) and there was a guy smoking a joint, with a cop 50 yards away."

No wonder Hamilton is happy to be back in the Lone Star State. He, like the rest of the Rangers, are hoping for a perfect storm of circumstances to change their luck: they’ve got October star Colby Lewis on the mound, a ballpark designed for hitters, not pitchers, and a home crowd that figures to use its lungs for cheering, not inhaling. Welcome to the World Series’ flip side.

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