Rio Ruiz, the Orioles' hottest hitter in May, has found that all those hitting coaches who preach consistency and routine just might be onto something.
With a home run in the Orioles loss to the Cleveland Indians on Thursday, Ruiz had hits in nine of his 11 games this month, giving him a .324 batting average with a .906 OPS in May and raising his season average to .256 — the highest it's been since the first weekend of the year.
He's found building a pregame routine that works for him with hitting coach Don Long and assistant hitting coach Howie Clark has been the key.