Travis Shaw thinks he’ll snap out of recent hitting slump

Travis Shaw is tagged out by Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis after being caught in a run down to end the fifth inning at Fenway Park on June 4. Barry Chin/Boston Globe

By PJ Wright

June 15, 2016

1 minute to read

Travis Shaw is convinced that his slump at the plate won’t last.

The Red Sox third baseman went just 1-for-18 over the team’s recently completed road trip and is batting a dismal .150 during the month of June — Nevertheless, Shaw says that his recent struggles are only temporary.

“Me and [hitting coach] Chili [Davis] have been working and you just keep going,” Shaw said via CSNNE. “You search for something. You’re looking for that feeling that you had a few weeks ago. Sometimes, it just takes time and repetitions. Eventually, it’s going to come. You just keep looking for something, searching for something and keep going.”

“That chess match never stops,” he added. “It just happens that just when my swing wasn’t feeling great, they kind of [figured me out]. It’s bad timing. I don’t feel well and they’re executing and that can be a bad combination. But like I said, I think I have a good idea what to do from here on out.”

Shaw is a career .315 hitter at Fenway Park and with the Red Sox playing their next nine games at home, he understands that if there’s any time to break out of this skid, it’s now.

“It’s that Monster, trying to go the other way,” Shaw said. “It keeps me on pitches and keeps from being too far out front on a lot of pitches, which, honestly, is what kind of happened in Minnesota. I felt, for the most part, the first game in San Francisco, was a pretty good game. I was 0-for-5, but I felt I hit three balls hard. Minnesota wasn’t good at all. I was out in front of a lot of pitches, so I’m gearing everything back and re-setting.”