Team Two-Strike Crunch: How Brewers Batters Have Found Power in Pitcher's Counts

On Mar. 1, the Brewers swatted five home runs as part of a 9-4 win over the visiting Rangers, at American Family Fields of Phoenix. In itself, that's not news; it was a spring training contest. Notably, however, three of those homers came in two-strike counts, including two on 0-2. A week later, when Christian Yelich got his first hit of the spring by going over the batter's eye in center field against Angels starter Tyler Anderson, it came in a 1-2 count, too. That's all part of a pattern, and not a wholly new one.

Only three teams (the Orioles, Diamondbacks, and Mets) had more extra-base hits in two-strike counts than the Brewers' 179 last season. For a team that finished 21st in the overall percentage of their plate appearances that ended in extra-base hits, that number stands out, even acknowledging the fact that they reached two-strike counts at a fairly high rate by being one of the most patient teams in the league. That ability to remain dangerous even when the pitcher gains leverage in the count is rare and valuable—and very much part of the team's plan for this year, too.

"I don’t want guys to necessarily cut down with two strikes," Pat Murphy said, in what might be surprising asseveration for many Brewers fans. "Contact is an important segment of offense, but certain guys you don’t want to cut down that much. Certain guys, even when cut down, still have power. [Rhys Hoskins]. [William Contreras]. They’re still covering the whole plate, and then still can hit a mistake with the same swing. Cutting down doesn’t mean less damage, necessarily. It can for some. They make that type of adjustment. But for some, it’s just seeing the ball a little bit longer, or zeroing in on a location."

Contreras's gift for this is hard to miss, though it's not always focused on generating power, per se. In that Mar. 1 game, he had a two-strike count against him in the first inning, with runners on base, and while he still used his huge, multi-stage lower-half process (toe tap, drawing back toward his back foot, then a big leg kick with a wide-open landing that pulls his bat through the zone fast), he did it a hair earlier, got his foot down sooner, and hit the ball smoothly into right field, for a single. Later in the game, when he faced another 0-2 hole but had no one on and two outs in the inning, he took more of a hunter's plan: the stride was not early, he went down to get a pitch shin-high, and he blasted it out of the park to left field.

"He’s a good baseball player, man," Murphy said the next day. "The two-strike thing, we still want to be able to capitalize on mistakes. Put it in football terms: you still want to be able to score a touchdown on 3rd-and-1. Your whole goal might not be to do that, but when the opportunity comes, you still go ahead and do it."

As the skipper also intimated, everyone has to do that differently. For Contreras and Hoskins, it can mean taking their usual plan, because their size and raw power allow them to cover so much of the zone. Contreras's preternatural hand-eye coordination make the job easier for him. Strikeouts are simply a part of Hoskins's game—the cost of doing business. He gets his two-strike value not only from hitting the ball a long way even when he takes extra care to put it in play, but from good takes that allow him to work his way back into a count or draw a walk.

Yelich did the same thing Saturday, when he took a close 0-2 pitch from Anderson before hammering the elevated 1-2 offering over the fence. 

"[The result] doesn’t matter, but it’s always good to have positive steps, whether it’s a home run or not," he said after leaving the game. "Even if it’s just a good at-bat, or you feel like you’re putting good swings on balls and being on time."

That includes those good takes, improving the position not only by applying a bit more pressure to the pitcher to throw a strike, but by making the next pitch a bit more predictable. Batters go to the plate knowing how pitchers want to attack them, and when they can get an extra pitch or two, it becomes easier for them to anticipate the next one—and pounce.

Blessed with far less raw power than most of his teammates, Brice Turang nonetheless cracked 17 of his 35 extra-base hits last year in two-strike counts. That's not to mention his two-strike doubles in both Game 1 and Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series last fall. He was 23% better than a league-average hitter in two-strike counts, and more of that value came from power than one would think. 

It's not a conscious change for him. He goes to the plate with a very simple plan, and if it's built correctly, he doesn't have to make any real adjustments based on the count—other than anticipating what the pitcher will try to do and seeing it clearly.

"I mean, I always want to hit the ball hard," Turang said. "I don't really look into it. I just try to hit the ball hard, create a low line drive."

Turang solves the problem of getting to his pop with two strikes differently, though. Unlike most hitters (who reduce their swing speed by 1-2 miles per hour, on average, with two strikes), Turang scaled back his swing speed early in counts last year, then didn't cut down at all when he got to two strikes.

Turang's average bat speed in the second half of 2023 (the part for which data is publicly available) was 68.5 mph. In 2024, that number cratered, all the way to 66.2—but not because Turang, who came to camp for his second season stronger than the year before, had lost the ability or the nerve to swing fast. He simply decided to swing under more careful control.

He was so much in command of that stroke, though, that he was exempt from the need to swing any slower to meet the ball when he got behind in the count. His average swing speed was 66.2 mph with 0 or 1 strike, and 66.1 with two strikes. As we've already discussed elsewhere, he had the league's most adaptable swing in 2024, and showed the ability to muscle up and create much more bat speed than you'd expect (based on his average alone) at times.

What's particularly striking this spring, though, is how often he's reached for that extra power in the counts in which you'd least expect it. Turang, too, was among those who hit a two-strike homer on Mar. 1. It was not only an impressive blast to center field, but one that came on a visibly more aggressive swing. You can see the times when Turang is intentionally giving up an iota of bat control to generate more power potential. He torques his back elbow more to trigger the swing, deepening his hand load, and his weight transfer is more forceful. He drives off his back leg hard enough that his back foot comes off the ground and slides slightly back behind him, as he leans into the swing to maximize leverage. It's a common move for many hitters, but a rare one for Turang. We've seen it multiple times in 0-2 and 1-2 counts this spring, though.

The Brewers have one fewer established power hitter in their lineup this season, but they still believe they'll find enough pop to win.

"That’s a valid question, wondering where the power comes from," Yelich said Saturday. "We had it at times last year, and we didn’t have it at times. We’ve proven that we’ve got a lot of ways we can score. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you can get the runs on the board. But obviously the, whatever it was, 10 or 11 three-run homers [Willy Adames] had last year, that helps. But he’s not here, so you’re gonna have to figure it out. Other guys will step up, or guys that build on previous years and mature in the league and learn themselves a little bit more."

Indeed, as young players like Turang, Sal Frelick, and (much more so, really) Joey Ortiz and Jackson Chourio learn themselves and find the right times and methods to attack and create power, the Brewers will have plenty of chances to make up for a lack of raw power in the lineup. Their collective approach is more complete than that, and merits further discussion elsewhere, but when it comes to two-strike counts, look for the Brewers to continue being one of the most unexpectedly lethal teams in the league.