CHICAGO — Back in Zach Neto’s second plate appearance of spring training, he worked the count full against Dodgers minor leaguer Antonio Knowles.

And then he swung at a slider in the dirt.

Ever since then, hitting coaches Brady Anderson and John Mabry have been hammering Neto with a message.

“You gotta get your pitch,” Neto said, quoting his coaches. “You can’t be going out there chasing. You’re too good of a player to be doing that.”

The message might not have fully taken hold through the rest of spring training – Neto still walked just five times in 53 Cactus League plate appearances – but ever since the regular season started, it’s been working.

Neto drew five walks in his first 20 plate appearances of the season in the four games in Houston. Last year he only drew 33 walks all season.

The official metrics tracked by Major League Baseball record pitches in the “chase” zone. They are pitches just far enough out of the zone to be clear balls, but close enough to induce occasional swings. Neto swung at 25% of pitches in the chase zone last year. So far this season, it’s only been 12%.

The caveat to all of this is that the sample size is much too small to indicate if Neto has made a sustainable change or if he just had a good weekend.

“The past couple years I’ve been super aggressive, especially on 3-2 [counts],  just trying to do too much maybe and swinging at pitches that the pitcher wants me to swing at,” Neto said. “I think the league has noticed that I’m a very aggressive hitter. It’s just a matter of slowing everything down and taking my pitches when I need to. The game will reward you, like how it did yesterday for me.”

On Sunday, Neto walked in his first two plate appearances. The third time up, he got a 3-and-2 hanging slider and he hit his second home run of the season. He then drew his third walk.

“I think that was the first time since college I had three walks in a game,” Neto said.

Thanks to his five walks, Neto has reached base in eight of his first 20 plate appearances. The three hits include two homers and a double. While a .400 on-base percentage is probably not sustainable, there’s plenty of room for improvement on last year’s .319 mark.

“With anybody, but especially Zach with that skill set, if you get in the zone and get disciplined, you never know what could be,” Manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I think it’s an exciting thing to think about. It’s exciting for him too, which is why he’s really working on it and honing in on it.”

The entire roster did a much better job with swing decisions in the first four games than last year. The Angels lead the majors with 28 walks and they rank third with a .386 on-base percentage. Last year, they ranked 28th with a .298 on-base percentage.

ABS TALK

A day after the Angels’ game turned, in part because of catcher Logan O’Hoppe’s decision not to challenge a key pitch, Suzuki said they are still feeling out how to best use the ABS.

“We’re having talks every day,” Suzuki said. “Whether it’s in an individual setting or a group or mini-group setting, we’re constantly discussing what’s a good situation, what’s important.”

It’s worth noting that O’Hoppe said he would have been much more likely to use the challenge in the eighth if the Angels had two challenges left. They burned their first one when Mike Trout challenged incorrectly in the first inning. Trout successfully had two pitches overturned in the ninth, leading to a walk.

Suzuki said he didn’t feel he needed to talk to O’Hoppe specifically about Sunday’s situation.

“He knows where we stand on it,” Suzuki said. “He knows we trust him. We talk about it all the time, how often he gets it right in spring training and now.”

O’Hoppe was perfect on his two regular-season challenges, and he was 9 for 12 during spring training.

As a whole, the Angels were 3 for 7 in challenges by their hitters in the Houston series. O’Hoppe had their only two challenges on defense.

NOTES

The forecast for the next two days in Chicago is not encouraging. Rain is expected throughout the evening on Tuesday, and the high temperature on Wednesday is expected to be 45 degrees, with steady rain. …

Triple-A Salt Lake lost its first three games of the year, with its pitchers allowing 31 runs. The best starter was right-hander George Klassen, who gave up one earned run in 4⅔ innings, with five strikeouts and no walks.

UP NEXT

Angels (RHP José Soriano, 1-0, 0.00 ERA) at Cubs (RHP Jameson Taillon, 11-7, 3.68 in 2025), Tuesday, 4:40 p.m. PT, FanDuel Sports Network, 830 AM