In midst of early season struggles, Kansas City Royals’ MJ Melendez made this change

Kansas City Royals outfielder MJ Melendez finally got the pitch he wanted.

In series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals, Melendez faced MLB veteran Adam Wainwright. It was a matchup featuring two generations of baseball athletes. Wainwright, who is 18 years older than Melendez, served up an 86.8 mph sinker in the sixth inning.

The problem was the sinker didn’t sink.

Instead, the baseball stayed over the middle of the plate. Melendez didn’t miss and drilled a triple into the outfield gap. It was a crucial swing that accomplished two goals. It scored a run that propelled the Royals to a 7-0 victory but, more importantly, it showed Melendez had his timing back.

“It was a good pitch to hit, and there have been times this season where I missed that pitch and not done what I needed to do,” Melendez said. “It’s all about being more consistent and trying to do that a lot more often.”

Melendez is hitting .213 against fastballs, per Statcast. He has 28 strikeouts against the combination of four-seam and two-seam fastballs, cutters and sinkers. His struggles have contributed to a lack of plate discipline in chasing those pitches. Melendez has seen 485 fastballs and whiffed 34% of the time.

As a result, Melendez has worked to improve in the batting cage. He is hitting more off a tee to recreate his swing path and change his eye level. He also increased the height of the tee to mirror the high fastballs that he is seeing.

“I am trying to stay on top of the ball and stay on time,” Melendez said. “Those are two pretty big keys for me. I feel like when I hit the ball hard, a lot of times it’s been a little too high in the air. I am trying to get that down a little bit.”

Melendez added he’s “sometimes getting beat by fastballs up.”

“I know a lot of teams are going to try to do that against me,” Melendez said. “I’m trying to stay in my zone and get to those fastballs when they are thrown.”

In his last five games before Tuesday’s finale in St. Louis, Melendez had increased his production. He had four hits and six walks — and blasted a home run against the Washington Nationals. From April 30 to May 29, Melendez was hitting .253 with 10 extra-base hits, 13 RBIs and 16 runs scored.

Royals manager Matt Quatraro believes Melendez is finding his rhythm. He applauded his efforts in working on his swing timing.

“I can picture a few of them that he has done that on,” Quatraro said. “That’s a really fine line for all the hitters. The difference between proving you can hit it is also proving you can not swing at it.”

Melendez was back in the lineup against the Cardinals on Tuesday. He struggled through an 0-for-4 performance but was at the center of one of the game’s pivotal plays.

In the fourth inning, Melendez was thrown out attempting to score from second base. He tried to leap over the outstretched arm of Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras at the plate. He was tagged out and the Royals were held scoreless until the ninth inning in the 2-1 loss.

After the game, Melendez said he wanted to be aggressive and score the run.

“You’ve got to try and take advantage,” Melendez said.

Royals manager Matt Quatraro was OK with the baserunning decision given it figured to be a low-scoring night.

“The way that game is going, you can kind of feel it wasn’t going to be a high-scoring game,” Quatraro said. “We have to take a chance there with two outs.”