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Angels’ Brandon Drury has his father to thank for career turnaround

June 18, 2023

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s fitting that Brandon Drury reached Father’s Day playing his best baseball of the season, because he said he owes his father for helping to turn around his career.

Drury had hit .205 with a .600 OPS over three straight years from 2018-20, seasons that he now calls “awful.”

That’s when Drury went to his father, who is not a coach but had been his coach, and rebuilt his swing, back to what it had been before he made some ill-advised changes.

“I scratched all that launch angle stuff and went back to my dad,” Drury said on Sunday. “Let’s just do whatever we have to do to get back to being a good hitter again.”

Drury, who was with the Toronto Blue Jays for much of those lean years, said he didn’t even care about power.

“I just wanted to be a solid player and help the team win,” he said.

In 2021, with the New York Mets, Drury had a .783 OPS, and he improved on that last season, hitting 28 homers with an .813 OPS with the Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres.

After Drury, 30, signed a two-year, $17-million deal with the Angels this season, he has hit 12 homers with an .809 OPS.

Drury slumped for the first three weeks of the season, but since then he has produced a .934 OPS over his last 45 games. This weekend in Kansas City, he he hit three homers and drove in five runs in the first two games. The Angels now have him hitting cleanup, behind Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.

“He’s been huge,” manager Phil Nevin said. “Bargainwise, find me a better free-agent pickup so far. He’s gotta be in the talk to maybe play in that game (the All-Star Game) in July, with the company he’s in. He’s been fantastic for us. He’s meant a lot to that group. He’s been a big part of that room.”

Drury said he still talks to his dad regularly to help keep his swing where he wants it.

“He’s my coach,” Drury said. “He watches all my at-bats. We talk a lot about the game and what he sees. He’s seen me at my best and my worst so I really lean on him.”

SCHEDULE BREAK

Nevin said he has been focused all season on getting to this point in schedule in a good position, because this is the beginning of a much more friendly stretch.

No team in baseball has played on more days than the Angels. (The Tampa Bay Rays have played one more game, but they had a doubleheader.) The Angels have also had two trips that took them to the East Coast so far.

This week the Angels have two off days around a two-game series against the Dodgers. They have a three-game trip to Colorado next weekend, and then they don’t leave California or get on a plane until after their July 23 game. Their only road games are in San Diego and at Dodger Stadium.

The Angels have only three more weeks without an off day.

“If we’re .500 or a little better after the way this has gone, we’re in a good position regardless of who’s in front of us because the schedule does lighten up for us for the next month and a half,” said Nevin, whose team came into Sunday’s game with a 40-33 record.

Nevin reiterated that he’s not referring to the quality of the opponents, but to the travel and frequency of off days.

“I’m not complaining,” Nevin said. “Our travel’s easy. We have nice planes. We get nice hotels. But at the end of the day on your body, the clock and everything, it does take its toll. It’s never anything we use as an excuse. I’m just saying after today I feel like for the next month we’re in a good position.”

ROTATION UPDATE

The Angels had planned to give Reid Detmers and their other starers some extra time off after their last turns, but they changed plans after seeing how Detmers pitched against the Texas Rangers earlier this week.

Detmers will now start on Tuesday against the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw, followed by Ohtani on Wednesday. That leaves Patrick Sandoval, Griffin Canning and Tyler Anderson to work next weekend in Colorado.

The Angels will not need No. 6 starter Jaime Barría until June 28, so he is available in the bullpen in the meantime.

NOTES

Left-hander Matt Moore threw a bullpen session on Sunday, and Nevin said “he threw the ball great.” If he continues to progress well, he could be back by the end of the month. …

Mike Trout and Ohtani homered in the same game for the 28th time, which tied Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson for the second most of any duo in Angels history. Trout and Albert Pujols (48 times) hold the club record. …

Outfielder Hunter Renfroe has impressed Nevin in a couple days of workouts at first base. “Of all the guys that I took over there to kind of introduce to the position since I’ve been here, I think he’s the one that looks more the part than anyone,” Nevin said. Although Taylor Ward played first in an emergency earlier this week, Nevin said “I don’t think Taylor really feels comfortable there.” Renfroe could get some opportunities at first because Jared Walsh is struggling and Gio Urshela is injured. …

Infielder David Fletcher returned to the lineup with Triple-A Salt Lake on Sunday. Fletcher had been on bereavement leave.