Does Your Confidence Drop After Going Hit-Less?
Batting averages, slugging percentages, RBIs, and runs scored are how baseball games are won or lost. Baseball is a numbers game. If you put up better numbers than the opposing team, you win.
If you put up better numbers than your teammates, you earn more playing time. The tripping point for baseball players is the over-focus on numbers.
Thoughts such as “I can’t go 0-for-4 again,” “My batting average has dropped ten points this month,” or “I need to start driving in some runs” interfere with production.
The issue with statistics is that they don’t consider the whole story and the bigger picture. “The whole story” has a broader view of performance.
For example, if you are crushing the ball at the plate, and the infielder makes a great play on the ball, that at-bat may not account for a hit, but it does account for a quality at-bat.
Other quality at-bats include hitting line drives even when the ball is hit right to an infielder or staying alive during an at-bat by fouling several pitches. When you consider quality at-bats, your confidence won’t plummet after a hit-less game.
“The big picture” is the law of averages. If you have a .333 batting average, it doesn’t mean you will go 1-for-3 every game. In some games, you will get multiple hits while you may go hitless in consecutive games.
When you have a “whole story” and “big picture” perspective, you lessen the pressure in the batter’s box and reduce muscle tension, allowing you to swing the bat freely, recognize pitches early, make good decisions, and maintain fluid mechanics. These elements enhance production.
Let’s look at the 2025 Minnesota Twins to understand the role of perspective. Through the first 58 games of the season, the Twins have a 31-27 record. In their last 10 games, the Twins scored two or fewer runs in five of those games.
Though the team has been disappointed in its lack of production, it recognized that it has been hitting the ball hard. In a 5-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, the Twins finished the game with six base hits.
However, they had 15 hard-hit balls, 11 of which were right to fielders on the opposing team. Those 15 hard-hit balls accounted for 12 outs. In the post-game interview, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli discussed the importance of patience, sticking to the same approach, and quality at-bats.
Baldelli believes these elements will quickly lead to production at the plate.
BALDELLI: “We had a tough time getting it going, I will say, the first three or four innings, we hit line drives all over the field. The name of the game is obviously scoring runs, but the way you score runs is by getting base runners and hitting line drives.”
“We hit a ton of line drives, and they amounted to zilch. That’s life in this game, and it’s going to happen sometimes. We had some days we didn’t blast the ball all around the park… and score a bunch of runs. (Wednesday) was the opposite… If we have the same offensive game the next time we step on the field, we’re going to score a few runs. There is no way we’re going to hit line drives and not score runs.”
When you have a realistic and objective view about the nature of production, you will not stress so much about the need to get a hit. It lessens the pressure in the batter’s box, leading to quality at-bats. It’s those quality at-bats that bring about hits.
Take a broader view in your post-game evaluations. Instead of fixating on statistics, evaluate your at-bats according to quality.
Tracking your quality at-bats rather than only your box score stats helps you stay confident and focused on what you can control.Over time, this mindset will lead to increased production at the plate.
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- Are Your Trying too Hard at the Plate When Hitting?
- How this Yankee Manages Losses in the World Series
- The Psychology of Baseball: Dealing with Pressure
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