Santander walking away from impatient past

BOSTON – The question comes at Anthony Santander in English, he smiles and raises both arms in mock triumph.

Santander doesn’t really need the team interpreter, Brandon Quinones, but keeps him close to pass along the responses. Never to relay the question unless it gets real complicated.

This one was easy yesterday morning. Santander nailed it less than halfway through.

“You drew your 23rd walk, which ties your total …”

And so begins the humorous celebration at his locker.

To finish, Santander’s 23 walks in 45 games and 188 plate appearances were equal to his final tally last summer in 110 games and 438 plate appearances.

After a bit of a lull that included nine consecutive games without a free pass, Santander had four over a seven-day period going into yesterday's doubleheader. Maybe he spoiled us in April with 14 in the first 17 games.

What’s the big deal about a walk? They seem much more important to a player with a career on-base percentage below .300. He's slashing .223/.337/.398 going into today's game.

The team-leading 24^th walk arrived in Game 2 and he later scored on Rougned Odor’s three-run homer.

“Honestly, thank God. I’m really happy with the way I’ve been taking my at-bats so far this year,” Santander said, pausing to let Quinones translate portions of his response rather than bombard him with a long quote.

“For me to have 23 walks in my first 45 games or so means a lot to me because it shows I’m being patient and disciplined at the plate. The most important thing is that I’m getting on base, I’m giving guys opportunities to bring me in and help the team to have that chance to win a game when I score.”

Santander’s 23 runs rank second on the club behind Cedric Mullins’ 24. His on-base percentage is third and his .735 OPS is second.

How much of this improvement is tied to the approach and drills instilled by co-hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte? The faster pitch recognition and dulled instinct to chase?

“The preparation has been a huge key for us,” he said. “It does start with the hitting coaches just going about things differently so far this season. Focusing on the go zone.”

You can’t do that while aiming for the warehouse or deeper left field seats in batting practice.

“When we go through BP, it isn’t just going up there and swinging anymore. It’s swinging with a purpose,” Santander said.

“Before the game, we’ll go in the cages and they’ll throw different pitches at us – fastballs, changeups – just so that we’re prepared for it whenever we go into the game and see those pitches live.”