HOUSTON — In the bowels of Minute Maid Park, past the visitors’ clubhouse and down the tunnel leading to the umpires’ locker room, stands the humid, dingy-walled, 900-square-foot cement box where Jackie Bradley Jr. got his groove back.
Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers likes to say that batting is infused with insecurity, that “every hitter comes to the ballpark every day searching for his swing.” You can sting a 98-mph fastball off the leftfield wall to score three runs and break a tie, as Bradley did on Sunday, and you can still head into batting practice before the next game praying you can do it again.