Breaking good: Bader finding success

SAN FRANCISCO -- Trouble with the curve? For Harrison Bader, that’s seldom been the case as of late.

This season, Bader is hitting .342 against breaking pitches across 38 at-bats entering Tuesday. Given how much Bader has struggled against breaking pitches in his career, the improvement has been a welcome sight.

"Everybody in this league can hit a fastball,” Bader said. “The separators are stuff off the fastball. So just continuing to be super simple and work on the ones I can handle. It’s been nice for me so far this year.”

Of Bader’s six home runs this season, five have come on breaking balls. That includes his two-run home run last Sunday off Germán Márquez (85.5 mph knuckle-curve) and a grand slam last Friday off Yency Almonte (83.8 mph slider).

Bader’s success this season with the breaking ball was also well apparent in Monday’s 5-3 win. Down in the count 1-2, Bader poked an outside slider up the middle to drive in a much-needed insurance run. Bader was clearly pumped, looking toward his dugout and yelling, “Let’s go!” several times.

With how well he’s been hitting breaking pitches, Bader entered Tuesday with the lowest strikeout rate (17.3%) of his career by far.

"Watching the baseball, understanding the ones you can swing at, understand the ones you don’t,” Bader said. “Keeping it super simple and allowing the baseball, allowing the game, to come to me so I can understand which ones to swing at and which ones not to swing at.”

That type of success against breaking pitches hasn’t always been the case. Coming into this season, Bader was a career .171 hitter across 328 at-bats that ended in a breaking pitch. In 2019, he had a .132 batting average and .186 slugging percentage, far and away the worst season of his career against the funky stuff.

“This game’s a game of repetition,” Bader said. “So, just constantly working on understanding the ones I can handle in the zone and the ones I can do some damage on, and just fighting until I get that pitch in the at-bat.”

Bader hasn’t wasted any time contributing since returning from the injured list with a rib fracture. In the first five games since he returned, Bader was 5-for-20 with seven RBIs and the two home runs, all while providing Gold Glove-caliber defense. While sharpness and timing are typically the primary concerns when a player misses time -- Bader has only played in about a third of St. Louis’ games -- his mindset was to keep things simple.

“I just threw it all out the window, honestly,” Bader said. “All the nerves, the anticipation, the expectations. ... I just threw it out the window and just totally played the ball.”

Worth noting

• Adam Olsen, the Cardinals’ director of medical operations and head athletic trainer, will be part of the National League’s staff at the All-Star Game next week at Coors Field in Denver.

• Tyler O’Neill, who pinch-hit in the Cardinals’ 5-3 win over the Giants on Monday, was originally scheduled to bat cleanup on Tuesday, but was scratched due to a food-related allergy.