Torkelson matches 2024 HR total in 34th game: 'This is who I am'

ANAHEIM -- Not far down the road from Angel Stadium is Cal State Fullerton and Goodwin Field, home of the four-time College World Series champion Titans. Spencer Torkelson knows it well; he hit his final college home run there -- or more accurately, out of there. The ball left Goodwin Field and landed on a street beyond left-center field.

"It might have taken a bounce or two,” Torkelson joked Saturday afternoon.

No one could’ve imagined at the time it could’ve been his final homer as an Arizona State Sun Devil, but the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the college season about a week later.

Torkelson has generally hit well in Southern California. He homered in back-to-back games at USC in 2019, and fondly remembers a tape-measure shot at Long Beach State as part of a two-homer game during his record-setting freshman season in 2018.

So maybe it was fitting that Torkelson has homered twice in three nights at Angel Stadium to reach a different personal milestone. When he connected with a curveball at the top of the strike zone and clubbed it deep down the left-field line for his 10th long ball in the eighth inning on Saturday night, he not only broke up Kyle Hendricks’ shutout bid, he reached double digits in home runs five weeks into the season.

Torkelson needed just 34 games this season to match his home-run total from 92 games last year. It’s just another step toward putting last season behind him.

"Definitely a lot of season left to go,” Torkelson said after the Tigers’ 5-2 loss. “Last year sucked, but I fought through it. This is who I am.”

This version of Torkelson is a dangerous hitter. And he’s proving to be adept at adjusting to how he’s being pitched.

Both of Torkelson’s home runs this series have come on breaking pitches. He went opposite field on a full-count slider from lefty Garrett McDaniels in Thursday’s series opener to cap the Tigers’ 10-4 victory. On Saturday, he almost had to reach out of the strike zone to connect with Hendricks’ curveball as it dropped in, but he had enough strength to connect with an exit velocity of 104.5 mph.

"I just finally really trusted my approach today of hitting the ball the other way,” Torkelson said, “and it allowed me to see all of his pitches. I saw all of his pitches the first two at-bats and he just left that one up. It was a good pitch to hit.”

That ability to gauge a pitcher as a game goes along and strike late has quietly become a strength for him. Torkelson entered Saturday with a 1.088 OPS in 31 at-bats from the seventh inning on, according to Baseball-Reference. While six of his 10 home runs have come against starting pitchers, all of them have been in his second, third or fourth time through the order.

By comparison, while half of his homers last year came off starting pitchers, three of them came in his first at-bat.

That ability to read and adjust, and the trust he puts in his approach, should come in handy as the season goes along and scouting reports on him evolve. While Torkelson’s hot start has cooled a bit over the last couple of weeks, he continues to do damage and provide run production, keeping him a regular presence in the middle of manager A.J. Hinch’s batting order.

Torkelson rates in the 74th percentile among Major League hitters with a 23.2 percent chase rate, the same rate he had last year according to Statcast. His whiff rate is also similar, as is his contact rate on pitches in the zone. But when he connects, he’s doing much more damage. He’s pulling the ball in the air at a rate of 32.9 percent, according to Statcast, up from 24.4 percent last year. His fly-ball rate in general is up to a career-high 42.7 percent, compared to 31.1 percent last year. His hard-hit rate is up to 50 percent.

Torkelson’s home run Saturday sparked a rally that eventually led to closer Kenley Jansen’s appearance in the ninth inning for a save, extending the Angels' bullpen heading into Sunday’s series finale. Barring a postseason appearance, those will be Torkelson’s last swings for the season in Southern California -- in what has been friendly territory for him.