Royals right fielder Nori Aoki sometimes lacks style points but gets results

Confronted with a Justin Verlander changeup on opening day in Detroit in his first game as a Royal, Nori Aoki was left “spinning in circles,” as hitting coach Dale Sveum recalled with a smile.

That was only a preview.

Aoki often appears awkward, either with quirky swings, serpentining outfield routes or wacky misadventures, such as having a ball thump him in the groin as he attempted a sliding catch.

At his best, as he was in a torrid and pivotal September, the bat almost appears to be a dexterous extension of himself. It seemed at his whim to spray, slash, chop or spin the ball at infinite angles and directions as he hit .379 that month, third-best in the American League.

But even in that groove, his unorthodox swing and approach still appears awkward and defies logic.

“You can’t teach what he does,” manager Ned Yost said.

Not that he’d be tempted.

“No, listen, I don’t even try to understand what he does,” Yost added.

This much, though, Yost discerned as the Royals entered their first postseason since 1985.

“If Nori didn’t get hot when he got hot,” Yost said, pausing, “I don’t know what would have happened. Because he’s really actually kind of carried us a little bit himself. …

“Exact right time.”

Yost could say that about a lot of players, actually, and he’d be right.

Because of the season-long void of booming hitters and regular production, few teams have needed so many contributions from so many offensive players to get to the playoffs.

That means every link in the chain, every strand of the DNA that makes up this team, was vital to get to this remarkable moment.

The Royals lead the American League division series against the Angels 2-0 entering Sunday’s game three at Kauffman Stadium, meaning they can clinch the best-of-five series.

It also means they are five wins from reaching their first World Series since 1985.

Pitching, defense and speed are what define and fuel this team. But so does the propensity for different offensive players to be the difference-makers in different stretches of the season.

Aoki, in fact, typifies the imperfect beauty of this team.

It’s not about style points, after all.

Aoki provided a major chunk of production in September, but he had begun to rehabilitate his dreary, disappointing season at the All-Star break just as the Royals began to surge back into contention.

Into the break, the first-year Royal was hitting .260 and often looked somewhere between tentative and slow afoot in the outfield, where his arm wasn’t what the Royals expected, either.

And he frequently looked baffled at the plate.

Ask Aoki through his translator, Kosuke Inaji, what changed, and Aoki interrupts with a rare burst of English.

“Top secret,” he said, laughing but nonetheless elaborating little through Inaji.

Yost offered scant more insight, suggesting it was both a matter of getting familiar with American League pitching, since he previously had played in the National League with Milwaukee, and the ebb and flow of the game.

“There’s no magical answer, there’s no quaint little quote,” Yost said before the playoffs. “He’s just hot.”

Sveum presented a more technical case, first reiterating a point that Aoki is a voracious student and immerses himself in the data the Royals provide Inaje to translate into Japanese for him.

“He’s getting his body in better position to hit: He’s getting his hands set way earlier, staying back on his backside longer,” Sveum said. “He has a very astute understanding of the swing path and what things you need to do to get to that.”

And about that swing path that often ends with Aoki falling away?

“When you really slow it down, it’s actually pretty darned good mechanics,” Sveum said, smiling and adding, “to the finish.”

Outfield coach Rusty Kuntz offered a different view. In hindsight, he believes Aoki wasn’t fully right at the start of the season.

“I don’t know if he was tired in the first half or what, but the energy just wasn’t there,” he said.

That may have led to a series of complications for Aoki, who then seemed to press.

“If you’re not doing well, at least you’re bringing the energy,” Kuntz said. “Well, if you’re not bringing energy and you’re not doing well, you’re going in the wrong direction.”

Once you start going in the right direction, though, it can produce momentum and stoke confidence.

Whatever the reason, Aoki has looked entirely more energized and relaxed since the All-Star break, hitting .317 since.

In fact, he looks like the player the Royals had expected.

Unorthodox as that might be.

Although he had a key sacrifice fly in the wild-card game against Oakland, Aoki has been quiet at the plate (one of 13) in the postseason so far.

But he contributed plenty to the Royals’ game one win at Anaheim … with his own unique touch of circuitous trajectories to several pivotal catches.

Kuntz reckoned unusually low lights and the twilight might have been a factor in those plays.

That wouldn’t account, though, for what Kuntz allowed was some fortune when Aoki concocted a last-millisecond stab of Howie Kendrick’s laser with two on in the sixth inning.

Zooming toward the wall in right-center field, center fielder Lorenzo Cain sprung up for the ball and perhaps screened the chugging Aoki, who may or may not have had his eyes open when it went into his glove.

“He probably saw the ball,” Kuntz said, smiling but adding, “but he probably was looking at Lorenzo Cain out of the corner of his eye.”

Small wonder Angels manager Mike Scioscia on Friday referred to Aoki’s plays less with admiration than a certain subtle scoffing.

“Howie hit a ball off the wall that Aoki somehow caught,” Scioscia said, then as if to reinforce the point added, “(C.J. Cron) drove a ball to right field that was just short of the wall that was a bullet that Aoki somehow caught.”

Really, though, Scioscia’s jab misses the point.

His routes might be a bit adventurous, Yost said, but “the bottom line is he finds ways to make the play.”

Even if he tends to make your head spin at times, it’s about the ends, not the means.

This story was originally published October 4, 2014 at 9:32 PM with the headline "Royals right fielder Nori Aoki sometimes lacks style points but gets results."