CHICAGO — There’s a lot to like about Steven Kwan’s game. He’s a contact hitter, he can turn a mistake pitch into a home run and he can steal a base when needed.
Then there’s the defense. He’s won three Gold Gloves for his play in left field for the Guardians. It’s one of the reasons he’ll play in his second All-Star Game on July 15 in Atlanta.
Kwan’s arm strength and range are easy to see. He leads AL outfielders with eight assists and his range factor (assists + putouts divided by games played) is the best among left fielders in the big leagues.
Over the years, he’s also become a master of deception when it comes to deking runners who happen to hit balls off the outfield wall that is always staring over Kwan’s shoulder.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the 19-foot left field wall at Progressive Field, the Green Monster at Fenway Park or any wall in between, hitters advance at their own risk if they hit one over Kwan’s head.
Here’s how he does it.
A hitter lines a ball off the left field wall at Progressive Field. Kwan, depending on where he’s positioned, rarely moves. The hitter-turned-runner, thinking the ball is off the wall for a double, may pull up or get confused, thinking Kwan is simply going to catch the ball.
No matter, he may slow down just a tad and that’s what Kwan wants.
The instant the ball hits the wall, Kwan turns, makes a barehand catch and throws a strike to second base. When he does it right, it blends into one motion that needs to be viewed in slow motion to be appreciated.
“It’s something I’ve tinkered with over the years and thought about,” said Kwan. “It’s not something I actually practice, but I’ve thought about it in my mind.
“If you do everything the same, and just let the ball hit the wall, you should be good with that.”
The usual outfield deke has the outfielder charging an uncatchable line drive and raising his glove as if he’s going to make the catch. Kwan doesn’t like that play.
“That’s not a good deke,” said Kwan. “You’ve seen it so many times that you go ‘I know he’s not going to catch it.’ You need to see something different.”
The wall at Progressive Field allows Kwan to provide that different look.
“The big wall in Cleveland makes it really easy,” said Kwan. “You know how the ball is going to come off. There’s the safety net, too, in left field with the chain link. I can deke and most likely it’s going to hit that chain link and go straight down.
“Whereas with the Monster in Fenway, the ball is going to shoot off. So, I actually have to turn earlier to see where it’s going to go. But in Cleveland, a lot of times, the ball is going to come straight down. I feel more comfortable doing that.”
Kwan said it’s harder to deke a runner in Fenway because the 37-foot Green Monster is so close to home plate and people assume they’re going to hit it off the wall … and the ball comes off the wall hard.
“So, if I do deke, and the runner reaches third, what did we really accomplish?”
When Kwan was growing up in the Bay Area, one of his favorite players was Hall of Fame outfielder Ichiro Suzuki. It was Ichiro who planted the deke seed in Kwan’s brain.
“Ichiro started this whole journey,” said Kwan. “I saw Ichiro at the Giants ballpark when he played for the Marlins. There was a hit in the gap. Ichiro dekes the runner and instead of him going from first to home to win the game, he stops at third and that’s how the game ended.
“That put it in my mind. He was really calm. He did a little backpedal jog like he was going to catch it, then he just turned around. It was really cool.”
What happened in Houston?
How did the Guardians sweep the Astros in a three-game series at Daikin Park after losing 10 in a row?
“We faced three really good pitchers and we followed our (hitting plan) as well as we have in any three games this season,” said manager Stephen Vogt. “When guys are dedicated to the plan, good things will happen. Good pitching will always beat good hitting, it’s the way our game is built.
“But I thought the at-bat quality through all three games was phenomenal.”
The Guardians faced Colton Gordon, All-Star Hunter Brown and Brandon Walter. They beat lefties Gordon and Walter and scored six runs off Brown, the most he’s allowed all season.
The Guards have improved to 9-19 against left-handed starters.
End in sight
The All-Star break begins Monday for every team in the big leagues.
“We have four days to push and then we all get four days off,” said Vogt. “Everybody needs the All-Star break. We all need four days. But we have four more games.
“In our group, everybody is talking about it. The energy we’re going to bring. The excitement we have. It’s been a rough five weeks for us. Then we have three games against a real good team to remind us that we’re a good team too.”
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