Flowers getting back into the swing of game
He's usually decked out in bulky catching gear, and he's also dropped 12 pounds from last season, so maybe you don't recognize Tyler Flowers.
Sometimes, he has trouble recognizing himself.
"I feel like a different player," Flowers said. "The whole works, catching, throwing, my stance, the swing, all of that."
When he says different, Flowers is paying himself a compliment.
He realizes that he might have had a handful or two of fans last season, when he batted .195 while losing his job to Josh Phegley in July and then having season-ending shoulder surgery in early September.
When Flowers agreed to a one-year, $950,000 contract in December, many Sox fans just assumed he'd be the backup catcher at best.
But general manager Rick Hahn bravely put his belief in Flowers, and it's been paying off big.
Even after going 0-for-3 with a walk in Tuesday night's 4-3 loss to the Tigers at U.S. Cellular Field, Flowers is batting a cool .359.
The game was tied at 3 until the ninth inning, when Austin Jackson reached third on right fielder Dayan Viciedo's error. With two outs, Jackson came home on catcher Bryan Holaday's surprise bunt single.
"It was just a perfect bunt," manager Robin Ventura said. "Smart play."
Flowers appeared to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth with a deep drive to center field, but Jackson tracked the ball down and made the catch in front of the fence.
Flowers has 28 hits overall so far and 25 are singles. Last year, he had 50 hits and only 29 were singles.
"Hopefully, this is a good foundation to lead me into whatever the next event is," Flowers said. "Hopefully, that'll be hitting for a little more power, but if I can hit singles all year and have a high average, I'm OK with that. I don't think that'll necessarily happen, I'm sure I'll hit the barrel sometimes. But I'm definitely not going to complain about getting hits because I've been on the other end and sometimes it's very, very hard to get a hit."
The obvious question is - why is Flowers suddenly such a better hitter?
"I don't think it's anything major with the swing," Flowers said. "I haven't shortened it or anything like that. I think my approach has helped me to trick people into thinking it's shorter.
"The big thing is I'm doing a better job of laying off pitches I'm not looking for. When you do that and you get pitches you are looking for, it's going to look like you're short or you're quick or you're on time, all those kinds of things."
Swinging at good pitches in the right spot is big with new hitting coach Todd Steverson, and Flowers is already a prized pupil.
"You have to have a game plan up there," Steverson said. "You can't go up there oblivious to what you're doing. You've got roughly 6-8 minutes in the box over the course of a three-and-a-half hour ballgame. You have to have some sort of focus, some sort of plan, and that's what he's been able to put together. You have to have a thought of what you want to do."