GAVIN LUX: FREEWAY SERIES RECAP

Gavin Lux Freeway Series Recap: March 28-30

Gavin Lux didn’t have a great week at the plate, but there were some positives to take away from it. He’s crushing the ball and playing fantastic defense while having a ton of fun doing it. Lux looks like he’s just about ready to go for Opening Day, and so are we. So here’s his final recap of spring training. 

March 28

The first game of the Freeway Series was by far Lux’s best at the plate. Lux began his night with an opposite-field home run against left-handed pitcher Andrew Heaney. He took a fastball on the outside half of the plate and crushed it 402 feet. He struck out in his second at-bat of the night on a 90 MPH change-up. In his final AB of the game, he swung at the first pitch he saw from LHP Patrick Sandoval hitting a sharp ground ball to right field for his second hit. 

March 29

Lux went 0-for-3 against the Angels in the second game of the series. He flew out and hit into a ground out his first two times up to bat. In his final AB of the game, he went down swinging on a backfoot slider. 

March 30

If you look at the box score, you’ll see Lux had another off night at the plate, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout. But that wouldn’t give you the whole story as to what he did. Where Lux shined the most this game was defensively. He played second base tremendously and had a lot of fun doing it. He made an excellent sliding play to his right and was able to throw out Ohtani at first. The play that had everyone talking on Twitter came in the 5th inning. He was playing to the left of second base in the shift and made a great throw on the jump from the hole at short to beat the runner at first. The biggest takeaway from this game was how much fun Lux looked like he was having while out there. We’ve heard in the past how difficult this game is on players, and after some early struggles in his career, it’s great to see Lux out there smiling and having fun playing the game he loves. 

Lux didn’t do a ton with the bat this week, and it certainly would’ve been nice to see more, but when he did make contact, he was hitting the ball extremely hard. In his first game of the Freeway Series, he had a base hit that registered at 106.9 MPH off the bat. In the final game, he grounded out on a ball that came off the bat at 100 MPH. So even if the hits aren’t piling up at the moment, you can’t overlook the fact he is crushing the baseball. The strikeouts are still something I’m hoping will come down with more experience, and if he can find a way to draw some more walks, he’ll be in excellent shape. Coming out of the Freeway Series, Lux has had a solid spring and will go into Colorado, hoping to carry over as much of that as he can.  

WEEKLY STATS

BA: .314

OPS: .791

R: 1 (11)

RBI: 1 (7)

AB: 9 (48)

BB: 0 (2) 

2B: 0 (4)

3B: 0 (0)

HR: 1 (1)

SB: 0 (0)

For last week’s recap, click here.

For the latest Gavin Lux stats, click here.

Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images