Renato Núñez says pregame work is starting to pay off

Orioles third baseman Renato Núñez said he feels like he's made some recent improvements on his defense at third base, which is starting to show during games.

In a small sample size of 30 games for the Orioles, Núñez has made four errors, but just one in his past 13 games. Errors, of course are just one defensive stat to look at. In the case of Núñez, the eye test shows he has just looked much more comfortable at the hot corner in recent games.

He said he's worked very hard before games to make improvements. He is happy to throw some praise toward Orioles infield coach Bobby Dickerson. The 24-year-old Núñez said he could tell from the start that Dickerson would be invested in him as a player and would do all he could to help him.

"I've been working a lot with coach Dickerson," Núñez said. "We talk a lot and he is helping me. He works hard for you to get better. So if someone wants me to get better, I am going to appreciate that a lot. I've told him that. In baseball, when you see coaches try to help you and make corrections, that is good. I think it's bad when they are not telling you anything. When people tell you things, I really appreciate that."

Núñez admits that maybe he didn't work as hard on his defense earlier in his career. He said his recent improvements are less the result of any dramatic adjustments and more about the consistent pregame reps he is putting in.

"Just worked hard on the basic stuff," he said. "When you talk about defense, it is often about the basics - you catch the ball and throw it. Sometimes, as defenders, we can put too much in our minds, so I'm trying to keep it simple.

"You want to get better on everything. Maybe a little better on the slower ground balls. Those when you are going forward. We've worked a lot on that and we will keep working to get better on everything."

Núñez snapped a 2-for-28 drought that had lowered his average to .250 when he had three hits in Game 1 on Saturday. He is batting .262/.345/.408 in 30 games with nine doubles, two homers and nine RBIs. After brief stops in the majors with Oakland and Texas, the Venezuela native is very excited about his current chance to play every night in Baltimore.

"Yeah, you work all these years," he said. "I've been working six, seven years in the minors and now to be here in the bigs and playing every day is great. Pretty excited about playing every day."