October 12, 200322 yr Marlins' Gonzalez works on swing By Jamey Eisenberg, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Friday, October 10, 2003 After the Marlins' workout Thursday, shortstop Alex Gonzalez followed hitting coach Bill Robinson into the batting cage. Gonzalez already had taken batting practice with the team, but he wanted some extra work. Gonzalez is in a 1-for-23 slump in the post-season. "I have to do something," Gonzalez said. "I've been struggling in this series with the bat. I went to the batting cage to get back my swing." Gonzalez batted.256 this season and set career highs with 18 home runs and 77 RBI. But he struggled at the plate against San Francisco and the Cubs and has failed to come up with any critical hits when the Marlins had men on base. "It hasn't been frustrating. I've helped the team on defense. But I have to do something on offense," Gonzalez said. "I have a lot of opportunities with men on base. I have to drive the run in." Robinson said there is nothing wrong with Gonzalez's swing, just his confidence. Robinson said all he did was work on the mental part of Gonzalez's batting, trying to "let him feel better about himself and his swing." "Right now he doesn't have a game plan," Robinson said. "Right now he's just swinging. There's basically nothing wrong with his swing, but when you get messed up mentally then there is something wrong with your swing. We worked on a lot of the mental aspects of hitting the baseball and telling him how good he is because he's a good player." Marlins manager Jack McKeon said there is no plan to replace Gonzalez at shortstop with Miguel Cabrera even though he made that switch late in Game 2. McKeon said Gonzalez's defense is too valuable and cannot be replaced. "We realize he's a much better hitter than he's showing right now," McKeon said. "But his defense is very special out there. So you discard the hitting.... The old saying, you can live by the bat and die by the bat. We're going to live by the defense." Get ahead: The Marlins know falling behind early is not good for their confidence and would like to change that trend tonight. In Game 1 the Marlins fell behind 4-0 and started off Game 2 down 11-0. "We're not a club that can catch up from eight, nine runs behind, but you keep it down to three or four and we have a chance," McKeon said. Said starter Mark Redman: "If I can go out there and set the tone early, it makes it a lot easier for your team not to fight back. And just like getting four runs on the board for yourself it makes it easier to pitch with." What happened to Tejera? When Michael Tejera entered Wednesday's game in relief in the eighth inning, his first pitch went flying into the Marlins dugout on the first-base line. No one knew what happened, but the mistake lightened the mood during the 12-3 loss. "Everybody had a laugh," McKeon said. "I stood up and pointed at home plate and said it's over there. But I think it broke up everybody. When you get the heck kicked out of you, you need a little fun somewhere along the line." Tejera said it was an accident. He meant to throw a fastball to Aramis Ramirez, but it "just slipped" and hit Lenny Harris in the dugout. "When that happened everybody started laughing," Tejera said. "I guess it gave something to the team." Noteworthy: Seattle pitcher Freddy Garcia was in the Marlins' dugout during the workout. He was visiting fellow Venezuelans Gonzalez, Cabrera and third-base coach Ozzie Guillen.
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