From left to right, Alex Blandino, Alex Pelaez and Billy Hamilton talk during a break in the action Saturday night. (Barrett McClean/Pensacola Blue Wahoos)
Before the first game of his three-day rehab assignment in Pensacola, Billy Hamilton shared a prediction with Jesse Winker.
“Winker, I’m probably going to get the first ball hit to me,” said Hamilton, recreating the conversation. “I haven’t played in three weeks, and I guarantee the first ball is going to come to me.”
Sure enough, Mobile’s leadoff hitter Evan Marzilli tested him with a high fly ball off starter Tim Adleman. Hamilton raced to the warning track, reached up and caught the ball above his head in midstride.
“I wasn’t expecting it to go that far, to have to run that far already,” Hamilton said. “That’s one thing I love to play, defense. I focus on a whole bunch of stuff, but defense is one of the things that I’m very successful at. For me to make a play that early off the bat is pretty good.”
Hamilton batted .273 (3-11) with a .429 on-base percentage in three games, walking three times with two strikeouts. In his second at-bat of the series, he scored on an RBI single by Alex Blandino while rounding the bases in 9.4 seconds. Incredibly, that measurement could have been even faster.
“I was running to third, and [third-base coach and hitting coach] Alex Pelaez was giving me the point,” Hamilton said. “I’m thinking he was trying to tell me to hold, or the ball was there. I mean, I had no idea. But he was pointing at Blandino about going to second. I had no idea that he didn’t get a double out of that. It kind of shocked me.
“It tested me. I haven’t been running in three weeks, and having to go from first to home is pretty fun.”
Hamilton went 2-4 Saturday with two walks, ultimately reaching five times when a fielder’s choice play didn’t warrant a throw. He added a stolen base in the sixth inning, the only theft of his trip, before a hitless Monday.
Manager Pat Kelly, who coached Hamilton as a rookie during his 2009 Gulf Coast League campaign, gave him high marks after the regular season finale Monday afternoon.
“What I saw was somebody a lot more relaxed at the plate, slowing the game down,” Kelly said. “Obviously, you come down a couple levels, the game slows down for you. But I was pleased. I thought he swung the bat well. When he gets on the bases, he’s such a threat that he really affects the other team. It’s great to have him out there on defense for sure.”
Kelly also sees Hamilton taking much-needed confidence back to Cincinnati. Before the injury, Hamilton was batting .226 while reaching at a .272 clip in 107 games. Both marks are behind the pace that made him a runner-up for the Rookie of the Year Award in 2014.
“I think it’s good for him,” Kelly said. “Obviously [he’s] having a tough year in Cincinnati, and that’s tough going to the ballpark every day. I’m sure it’s refreshing to him to come to some place and actually have meaningful games. I just think your focus and concentration is that much better.”
Barely a week back into his routine — his first day of throwing was Wednesday and he took batting practice on Friday — Hamilton tightened up in his first game.
“It kind of got stiff on me a little bit,” Hamilton said after Saturday’s game. “One of the balls I swung at and missed, it kind of hit me a little bit. Not to a point where it was hurting me really, really bad. I felt it on that one swing, but that’s what happens when you come off a shoulder injury.
“I’ve got to figure a way just it keep it moving while I’m not there and maybe heat it up during innings, stuff like that. But overall, it was a good day.”
By the final day, Hamilton gave the all clear signal.
“It feels good,” he reported. “It’s always good getting back on the field when you haven’t been playing for a while. It feels good, and I’m ready to get back to Cincy with my team.”
