Ty France, Mariners profit from improved swing

Published 3:45 pm Tuesday, September 20, 2022

ANAHEIM, Calif. — As a large group of media stood waiting for him in front of a navy backdrop arrayed with Mariners logos, Ty France, ever the team comedian, looked at the group and remarked, “Oh, this is way too many people.”

Knowing France likes the give and take, he was told, “Well, if you wouldn’t have played well then nobody would be waiting to talk to you.”

Without hesitation, France smirked and replied, “I’ve been doing a really good job of that lately.”

Never afraid of self-deprecation, the humor was easier for France following a game Monday where the Mariners won 9-1 and he drove in four of those runs with an RBI double in his first at-bat and a three-run homer in his fourth at-bat while being on base for Carlos Santana’s game-changing grand slam.

“It felt good,” France said. “There were a couple of minor adjustments we made setup-wise and swing-wise, and it kind of paid off.”

The changes likely wouldn’t be noticeable if you weren’t looking for them. But assistant hitting coach Jarret DeHart was studying video of France’s at-bats earlier in the season and of late.

He noticed a few differences.

“He saw I was a little too narrow with my legs and it was causing me to kind of like drop my back shoulder,” France said. “My front half was going, but my upper half was staying back. I had to sync that up, and then it was just kind of working on the direction with my hands.”

France took the changes into the indoor cages and could feel the difference while hitting off the high-velocity pitching machine.

“I was backspinning fastballs off the machine,” France said. “I just kind of realized, ‘OK, I’m in a better spot.’”

He took it into the game and could feel the difference not just in the pitches that he hit but in the pitches out of the zone that he didn’t chase, which had been a problem of late.

“When I’m barreling fastballs and when I’m laying off like good pitcher’s pitches, if I’m able to take those then I’m usually synced up and on time,” he said. “The rest is kind of just direction with my hands.”

After being bothered by nagging injuries coming out of the All-Star break, sapping his production, France has felt out of sorts at times at the plate in recent weeks. He hit a two-run homer in the opening game of the series but had just a .154/.170/.327 slash line with only eight hits — three singles, three doubles, two homers — in his last 53 plate appearances coming into Monday with no walks and eight strikeouts.

With Eugenio Suarez on the 10-day injured list with a broken index finger and Julio Rodriguez and Mitch Haniger fighting through back soreness, the Mariners need France to return to his All-Star form.

“I thought his at-bats were really good,” manager Scott Servais said. “It was great to see.”

France is nearing his own kind of 20-20 club. He now has 20 homers and has also been hit by pitches 19 times this season.