Then, for the first time in his quite short career, he stopped hitting.
0-fer-6 in Des Moines. 3-fer 9 in San Fernando, but 1-fer-9 in Valencia, and 2-fer-16 at home against Vancouver and the Stars again. Calgary gave him the 1-fer-11 flu. He got a 3-fer-8 when the River Monsters came into town but gathered only two hits in nine AB against Omaha, then was 0-fer in Boise. That string dropped his line to a startling .213/.283/.407—a line that was drawing boos at home and cheers on the road.
A line that made insiders wonder is AAA outfielder Anastasio Hernandez might not be the answer. The fact that the team was winning despite his problems may well have been all that saved him from the ignominy of a demotion. A recovery seems to be on the way, though. He picked up a pair if hits against Valencia last week, then after a hitless game, has run off a six-game hitting streak that includes a couple multi-hit games and a pair if doubles, and a pair of homers.
“It’s the doubles that make me feel right,” he said recently. “I don’t think of myself as a guy who will hit 25 or 30 home runs, but I need to be hitting the gaps. I know I’m right when I’m having conversations with shortstops.”
He’s had five doubles in his last thirteen games, after having not registered even a single two-bagger in the seventeen games prior. That’s a few good conversations.
McKinney shrugs off questions about pressure. “I know where my next meal is coming from,” he said with the humility that endeared him to fans last year. “I’ve got a good roof over my head, and a set of parents who love me. I don’t have anything to worry about.”