June 26, 2012|By Eduardo A. Encina | The Baltimore Sun
Orioles switch-hitting catcher Matt Wieters was the hero of Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Nationals with his two-run homer in the eighth inning. And while it continued Wieters’ domination of left-handed pitching this season, it was just his second homer from the right side of the plate.
Wieters’ split stats are incredibly intriguing. He’s hitting .413 against left-handed pitching -- 215 points higher than his average against right-handed pitchers, even though eight of his 10 homers came from the left side.
Last year, Wieters hit 109 points higher from the right side, but he has better splits from the left side during his first two seasons as a major leaguer.
“When I got here, it was the other way around,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “People were turning him around to bat right-handed.
"One of the great skills to me in sports is the ability to switch-hit in sports. I still marvel at guys who can do it. It would be like you writing with two different hands. It's hard. Usually, the right-handed side is a little tougher because you don't see as many at-bats over there. But believe me, Matt got it back to where he was pretty even.”
After Sunday’s game, Wieters couldn’t explain the stark difference in his numbers.
“If I knew that I would try to be a hitting coach or something,” he said. “But no, it’s, you’re always going to have a strong side and weak side and that’s the great thing about switch hitting and the tough thing about switch hitting is you’re always going to be working on one side to get it back equal or better than the other side, and right now [I’m] trying to get the left side to feel as good as the right.
"It’ll flip-flop at some point during this year.”
Here’s a closer look at Wieters’ splits from both sides of the plate.
2012
Left: .198 avg. (35-for-177), 8 HR, 22 RBI
Right: .413 avg. (16-for-63), 2 HR, 12 RBI
2011
Left: .235 avg. (88-for-375), 11 HR, 42 RBI
Right: .344 avg. (43-for-125), 11 HR, 26 RBI
2010
Left: .265 avg. (35-for-177), 9 HR, 46 RBI
Right: .207 avg. (25-for-121), 2 HR, 9 RBI
2009
Left: .313 avg. (68-for-217), 6 HR, 26 RBI
Right: .248 avg. (34-for-137), 3 HR,17 RBI
