WASHINGTON — With two outs in the first inning Tuesday night, the Nationals’ Jake Irvin delivered a 2-1 sinker on the outside edge to Emmanuel Rivera. It’s the type of pitch Rivera might have struggled with a year ago, when he hit just .183 on pitches over the outer third.
This year, he stayed on the ball, lined it into right-center field and drove home the Diamondbacks’ first run of the game.
The hit was just one at-bat on a night when the Diamondbacks scored 10 runs, teeing off on Nationals pitching early and often. But it served as a microcosm for the success the third baseman has had since being recalled from Triple-A Reno on April 25.
The Diamondbacks traded for Rivera in an unheralded deal last summer, receiving him from the Royals for Luke Weaver, who was on an expiring contract. At the time, he was viewed as a power bat who could help balance out a lefty-heavy Diamondbacks’ lineup.
He filled that role as intended, slugging .424 with 14 extra-base hits in 39 games. But he was far from a complete player, hitting just .227. It’s part of the reason the club signed Evan Longoria to do many of the same things Rivera does.
Over the past six weeks, though, Rivera has been a revelation. He’s hitting .348 with an .844 OPS, giving the Diamondbacks another impact bat to slide into the middle of the order.
“We always felt very strongly about his ability to make solid contact with the ball but he’s doing it at a very consistent level right now,” manager Torey Lovullo said.
Hitting coach Joe Mather has seen a different approach from Rivera this season. Rivera, Mather said, is more focused on staying inside the ball and driving it to the middle of the field, rather than pulling it for home runs.
“When you first come up, you want to make a splash,” Mather said. “And then not only that, but he came to a brand new team. So I think there’s always a mental battle for us at the plate playing this game. But wanting to come in and make a good impression and a lot of times, power will do that. We know power does that. But chasing it is always a very risky approach and strategy. There may have been some of that last year and I haven’t seen that at all this year. For me, it’s more confidence in himself, less trying to do anything for anyone else.”
That approach plays out in the numbers. After joining the Diamondbacks last summer, Rivera pulled 44.8% of the time — a rate that is down to 40.5% this year. He hit the ball up the middle at just a 27.1% clip. This year, he’s doing so on 38.0% of batted balls.
Rivera’s all-field approach has helped him lower his strikeout rate from 25.0% to 10.6%, a drastic shift that has helped drive his success.
So, back to Rivera’s single on Tuesday. Last year, he might have tried to pull that pitch, either producing weak contact or whiffing entirely. This year, he drove it the other way, bringing home a run and adding to a .364 average on pitches on the outer third.
“There were times last year where he would maybe look to turn on some pitches, probably a little bit too far to the left side or push them too far to the right side and this year, it’s been more edge of each gap to the other edge of the gap,” Mather said. “I think probably for him, just refining his own move and finding, ‘Okay, here’s my best lanes, I’m just gonna live right there.'”
The at-bat — part of a day on which Rivera reached base four times — epitomized why Lovullo has tried to get Rivera into the lineup as much as possible.
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When he first came up in place of Jake McCarthy, it seemed that he would primarily start against left-handed pitchers in place of Rojas. Even with Rojas struggling over the last month, he has continued to start almost every game against righties. Instead, Rivera’s at-bats have come through an ad hoc approach, whether that means platooning with Rojas, starting at designated hitter or spelling Christian Walker at first base.
“He’s been swinging a hot bat and I’ve gotta pay attention to that,” Lovullo said. “I’ve had conversations with Josh about maybe at times, Rivera, with the way he’s swinging the bat, will cut into his playing time a little bit and it’s not for anything other than how Rivera’s been swinging and I’ve gotta pay attention to those things. So the hot hitters are gonna play when there’s an opportunity for them to play.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rivera earning a bigger role for Diamondbacks