Ron Washington Saw Hamilton “Coming Out Of It” A Week Ago

With a knock on some wood, it seems that Josh Hamilton is finally coming out of a brutal, two-month long slump, and manager Ron Washington, for one, isn’t all that surprised. Washington said this week that he saw Hamilton’s turn-around coming.

"I saw him coming out of it maybe a week or so ago," Washington said, per ESPN Dallas. "You know, he's laying off the real bad pitches. Because Josh is a swinger, he's gonna swing at some pitches out of the zone, but he's doing a good job of controlling the strike zone and when he sees his pitch, he's really getting through it. Today he did that."

For the past week, Hamilton is hitting .333 with a double, a triple, a home run, and seven RBIs.

"He's swinging the bat well,” Washington continued, “and the one thing he is doing very well is when there's RBIs out there, he's not missing very many of them."

That said, the road doesn’t get any easier for Hamilton this weekend.

The Rangers will begin a tough series against the Tigers tonight in Arlington, and Hamilton doesn’t exactly have a great history with Detroit’s Friday night starter, Max Scherzer; the Rangers’ slugger has faced Scherzer 12 times over his career, and has just two hits against him, none going for extra bases.