Is Jean Segura walk-off a sign of things to come? ‘They know what I’m capable of’
All Jean Segura was trying to do was hit the ball toward the middle of the field. Really, that’s all he’s ever trying to do when he puts the ball in play. And after an 11-year career where doing that has been successful, why change that approach even in the midst of one of the longer slumps of his career?
Segura was rewarded for it in the ninth inning Friday, when his ground ball against Michael Rucker hopped through the middle of the infield, past Dansby Swanson and into center field for a walk-off single in the Miami Marlins’ 3-2 win over the Chicago Cubs at loanDepot park. It was Segura’s ninth career walk-off hit.
“At the end of the day, I really want to contribute to the team. I want to have success,” Segura said. “They know what I’m capable of, and they know at some point, I’m going to get hot, and when I get hot, it’s real because they see it.”
It was also, Segura and the Marlins hope, the latest sign of things turning in Segura’s favor after a rough start to his first season with Miami after signing a two-year, $15 million deal with a club option for a third year this offseason.
Segura, a two-time All-Star who reached the World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies last season, entered Friday hitting just .203. However, his expected batting average, which is based on quality of contact, was .266. The 63-point difference was the fifth-largest negative discrepancy in MLB among players with at least 75 plate appearances.
His batting average on balls in play was just .246, 70 points below his .316 career average. His hard-hit rate is a career-high 40.9 percent but he also is hitting more than 60 percent of his balls in play into the ground, limiting his chance for big plays. He has grounded into an MLB-leading eight double plays.
The framework for success is there. The results, however, had eluded him.
“He’s been having great at-bats all year and hitting the ball hard all year and he’s just not getting paid for it right now,” Marlins infielder Jon Berti said earlier this week. “If he keeps swinging like he is, eventually it’s going to go away from people. Just seems like he’s had some rough luck so far.”
Added manager Skip Schumaker: “He’s one of the leaders in the clubhouse and he’s the guy that tries to get everybody going, no matter how frustrated he is. The guy loves to play baseball, so when you see him out there frustrated, it hurts you because you know how much it means to him and how passionate he is when he plays the game. The guy wants to play every single day and he’s going to come out on top of this thing.”
That luck started to turn around for him this week, starting with Miami’s series against the Atlanta Braves.
Segura broke up Atlanta pitcher Spencer Strider’s no-hitter bid in the eighth inning on Monday when he lofted a single into shallow left-center field. He followed that up with a key double in Miami’s five-run ninth-inning rally on Thursday to avoid a sweep in the series at Truist Park.
And then on Friday against the Cubs, Segura logged the game-tying hit with a seventh-inning RBI single to left field and then ended the game with his walk-off single for his first multi-RBI game of the season.
“I feel like early in the year, I was hitting the ball really good, hard right at people, not having good luck. ... Sometimes, baseball’s not on your side, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Segura said. “I just had to continue to keep working and keep with the team, and at some point, it’s going to turn around. I feel like I’m way too good an athlete to spend the whole year struggling like that. I’m a veteran and I know how to get at it, and I had to keep going. I had no choice. So for me, [I] just want to continue working hard and winning baseball games.”
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