NEW YORK - Yainer Diaz's first multi-home run game of the year Tuesday illustrated a point of focus for the Houston Astros catcher amid a trying offensive season to date.
Diaz pulled a sinker from right-hander Will Warren that was inside but elevated for his first home run in the Astros' 9-7 win over the Yankees. He later hit an elevated four-seamer over the outside corner from left-hander Brent Headrick the opposite way for a 356-foot homer.
"Instead of hitting the top part of the ball, I've been working on hitting the lower part of the ball so I can elevate it better," Diaz said, though interpreter Otto Loor.
Diaz reached the 20-home run mark in two of the past three seasons. But he entered Wednesday with a career-high 55.5% ground-ball rate this season, compromising his power potential. His career ground-ball rate is 48.8%.
Diaz, who missed about six weeks in the first half with an oblique injury, entered Tuesday slugging .392, which would have been his lowest mark over a full season. His two-homer night in the series opener at Yankee Stadium raised that mark by 30 points. His OPS jumped by 40 points to .712.
The latter mark is above the .701 OPS that Diaz compiled last season but down from the previous two years, when he produced offensively at above-MLB average levels. His downturn the past two seasons has contributed to inconsistent Astros offenses, suboptimal for a bat-first catcher.
Diaz posted his best offensive month of this season in July, with five home runs and an .891 OPS, but he entered Tuesday with a .489 OPS in 18 games in August. Though Christian Vázquez has claimed nearly an equal share of starts at catcher in the second half, Diaz retains the higher offensive ceiling for a Houston lineup seeking sources of production with 30 games left in its season.
That made Tuesday's output intriguing, if Diaz can harness some of its components. Diaz attributed his overall rise in ground-ball rate to a combination of "my approach" and how pitchers are attacking him.
"I'm hitting some balls that the location is not favorable for me to be able to elevate the pitch," he said.
Baseball Savant breaks pitch tracking into zones, with nine squares comprising the strike zone and four surrounding areas. Diaz has seen a career-high 49.1% of total pitches this season in the bottom third of the zone or the two outside areas that include below the zone.
Conversely, Diaz has seen a career-low 31.9% of pitches in the top third of the zone or the areas outside that comprise above the zone. He owns a .306 average and a .583 slugging percentage on those pitches, but they comprised just 26% of his balls put in play through Tuesday, per Baseball Savant.
"He's always been kind of a high-ball hitter," Astros manager Joe Espada said. "He can really handle those pitches when they stay up in the zone - two-seam fastball, four-seams up, hanging breaking balls. And when he does, he can stay back and elevate those pitches. It's the chase down, the sinkers down in the zone, that kind of induces those ground balls.
"So, focusing on getting those pitches up in the zone, set your sights higher and try to get those pitches that you know you can handle, that's the adjustment he's made. And if we can get him to get hot in the last month of the season, it'd be great."
While Diaz remains one of the sport's most aggressive swings, some other offensive metrics this season are troubling. He began Wednesday with a career-low 36.4% hard-hit rate, compared to a 43.5% career rate, while his average exit velocity was down 2 mph from two seasons ago. To what extent that reflects Diaz's early oblique injury, or his observations about pitch selection, are a question.
The average attack angle of Diaz's bat barrel on contact is also 2 degrees lower than last season and 3 degrees lower than in 2024, according to Baseball Savant, suggesting swing mechanics or timing could also be contributing to the increase in groundballs.
Tuesday night, Diaz said he felt his "body was under control" and "it helped me to not chase the pitches that were out of my zone." Diaz put four balls in play, all with an exit velocity of 96.6 mph or higher, and drew a walk, just his third since July 22.
"I think it's a sign of the work that I've been putting in," Diaz said Wednesday, "and that if I don't give up and be constant with my routine, the results are going to be more constant and they're going to keep on coming."
Both the Astros and Diaz would welcome it. Houston had scored three or fewer runs in 10 of its previous 18 games before Tuesday. Diaz's two homers matched his total in his first 80 at-bats after the All-Star break.
"It's a lot of up and downs, it's a season that I'm learning a lot," Diaz said. "I feel like I'm still a young baseball player and I feel like I want to keep on learning and keep getting better."
SubscribeThere’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Yainer Diaz is changing his approach at the plate. Can it revive Houston Astros catcher's bat?.
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