There’s hot, there’s red hot and then there’s Jake Burger. In Tuesday’s 5-4 13-inning win against the Norfolk Tides (Orioles) in Charlotte, the Knights’ cleanup hitter homered, doubled, singled twice and walked twice, scoring two runs and knocking in two.
The offense, with 12 hits and 10 walks, missed multiple chances to break this one open, leaving 17 runners on base. But the bullpen was up to the challenge, scattering four hits and one unearned run over the last eight innings, with 12 strikeouts. Tanner Banks was especially effective, giving up two hits over the final three frames, with five strikeouts. The Knights finally pulled it out in the bottom of the 13th on Tim Beckham’s sac fly.
Burger’s round-tripper, his 10th of the season, tied Tim Beckham for the team lead. Burger also leads the Knights in RBIs, with 35, and has raised his season’s average to .317.
Four Hits In Just Nine Pitches
He is so locked in that he homered on the second pitch of his first at bat, with a 103 mph exit velocity. On his second at bat, in the third, he hit a scorching single at 107 mph, also on the second pitch he saw. After a walk in the fifth, he doubled over the centerfielder’s head on the first pitch of the at bat in the seventh inning. He walked again in the ninth and then singled in the 11th on the fourth pitch. That’s four hits on nine pitches!
Burger said that teams have begun pitching him differently, but he credits hitting coach Chris Johnson for helping him make the necessary adjustments. Burger has also been working hard lately on laying off pitching out of the strike zone, an issue earlier in the season.
“I think the last Durham series, I started getting pitched a little differently,” Burger said. “Everybody has their holes in their swings that teams try to attack so I think the key is to recognize that with hitting coach Chris Johnson and make the adjustments, whether it is sitting on a fastball, sitting on a breaking pitch or sitting on a location. You get a scouting report for each game and come up with a plan and you don’t want to get away from that plan.”
Game Prep
Shortly after a game ends, manager Wes Helms and Johnson prepare the lineup for the next game and email it to the team. Johnson also sends out a scouting report on the opposing pitcher and designates a player to lead the team’s 5:15 PM pre-game meeting.
“They’ve got to learn how to prepare for a game,” he explained, “because no one is going to do it for them in the major leagues.”
But he also has a separate conversation with Burger each day about how he will likely be pitched.
“Guys in the three and four-hole are going to get pitched to different regardless,” Johnson said. “Then when we get to the point in the season we are at now, the book is going to be out on (Burger and Sheets, when he was in Charlotte). What they can hit. What they can’t hit. And that’s what pitchers will focus on until Jake shows that he can hit that pitch and then they’ll try something else. It is the cat-and-mouse you deal with all year, and everybody, not just the three and four hitters, everybody in the lineup has a book and pitchers are trying to exploit that.”
Johnson said Burger’s pre-game preparation is a big part of his success.
“He is very good at coming up with a plan and sticking with it for each pitcher that he faces,” Johnson said. “So if there’s a breaking-ball-heavy guy, he is good at looking for that pitch or laying off that pitch if he doesn’t want it and sticking to what he wants to hit.”
A Team Meeting
Helms said he held a team meeting on Tuesday to discuss how to win more of the close ballgames that the team has been losing lately. Helms sees a lot of improvements, with more hitters having quality at bats and pitchers being more aggressive and walking fewer batters.
The next hurdle, he said, is to get relievers to remain in control of their emotions when they come into a close ballgame late.
“We’re still working on those guys coming in under pressure and doing what they can do and not trying to do too much,” Helms said. “Some guys get too amped up and try to do too much. Part of it is missing last year, and part of it is guys being in Triple-A trying to impress the big leagues.”
Press Box Chatter
Now that Gavin Sheets is in Chicago, presumably for more than just a brief stay, the talk turned to Micker Adolfo, his possible promotion to Charlotte and what a lineup would look like with he and Burger hitting back to back.
Photo credit: Laura Wolff/Charlotte Knights
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