One month before Saturday, Andrelton Simmons was the Angels’ No. 9 hitter, carrying a .204 batting average and .494 OPS into the summer.
Saturday, Simmons was the Angels’ No. 5 hitter, carrying a .279 average and .676 OPS after his two-for-four day at Minute Maid Park. He has been the team’s hottest hitter for one month, and now both of those statistics are better than his career marks.
The shortstop has traced the improvement to his decision to revert to a toe tap he employed in his batting stance in 2014. Over time, he had switched to a larger leg lift that siphoned some of his balance while batting.