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Pablo Sandoval is in a pretty good place these days. He has hit .326 this postseason, has reached base in each of his past 23 postseason games, and he's about to play in his third World Series in five years. Two years ago in the Fall Classic, Sandoval hit .421 with eight hits in a four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers and joined Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols as the only players to hit three homers in a World Series game. What might Royals manager Ned Yost take into account when pitching to and defending against Sandoval? Use your lefties
The switch-hitting Sandoval hit .317 with 11 homers versus right-handed pitching and .199 with five home runs against left-handed pitching in the regular season. This postseason, Sandoval has mostly avoided left-handed pitchers; he has had only three of his 48 plate appearances against them in 10 games. But Yost has a few options he can throw at Sandoval, such as starting pitcher Jason Vargas and relievers Brandon Finnegan, Danny Duffy and Tim Collins (if he decides to again carry three lefty relievers). What's mystifying about Sandoval's struggles against lefties this season is that he has missed a lot of hittable pitches. Sandoval has three hits against the 96 pitches he saw within the middle third of the strike zone (as opposed to the outer third or inner third). In 2013, he had 11 hits against the 79 pitches he saw in that area. Right-handed pitchers don't have many options Sandoval can cover the entire plate and then some against right-handed pitchers. There's a window to get him out at the bottom of the strike zone, but the margin for error is small. The best hope for a right-hander is to throw a pitch far enough away that it can't be touched. Sandoval swung at 19 percent of what our pitch-tracking system labeled "noncompetitive" pitches (he had one hit on a ball that was almost in the dirt and another that was basically in the right-handed batter's box). That was the third-highest rate among those hitters who qualified for the batting title this season (the two players ahead of him are Royals catcher Salvador Perez and Orioles outfielder Adam Jones). But even that may not be enough. Sandoval had two hits in the NLCS against curveballs from St. Louis' Adam Wainwright that were termed "noncompetitive." One was on a pitch at his toes, the other was almost in the right-handed batter's box. Handling the heat
As Buster Olney noted in his blog, Sandoval is very capable of turning around a 95 mph fastball from Yordano Ventura, Wade Davis, Kelvin Herrera or Greg Holland. His batting average against pitches that fast from righties this season is .315. But the temptation may still be there to throw those pitches. He put only 22 percent of his swings against those pitches in play (which ranked in the bottom 5 percent of major league hitters).
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