Dustin Pedroia

Boston Red Sox's Dustin Pedroia has hit four home runs this season (AP photo).

(Tony Avelar)

SEATTLE -- Dustin Pedroia, with his career-low .265 batting average and four home runs in 302 at-bats this season, was hitting third for the Boston Red Sox again on Monday night.

Pedroia certainly has the track record and the consistency to be the team's three-hitter. It's hard to argue that. And while he's tied for fifth in the majors with 23 doubles this season, the threat of the long ball has been almost nonexistent when he's up to bat.

Over the last four years his home runs have dipped from 21 to 15 to nine to four. He's had health problems sprinkled in there, but manager John Farrell says there are no current injuries, a claim Pedroia has backed this season.

So what's with the low home run totals?

"The way he’s been pitched," Farrell said. "You don’t see opposing pitchers try to throw him in as much, particularly in Fenway Park, where a lot of his home runs have come. There’s a willingness and an intent by the opposition to stay down and away with regularity. Location has a lot to do with that.”

Location of pitches to Dustin Pedroia (fangraphs.com)

Success per pitch location for Dustin Pedroia (fangraphs.com)

A look at the heat maps, courtesy of fangraphs.com, backs Farrell's observations. He's being pitched most frequently to the lower, outer part of the plate, an area Pedroia has always been very good at driving singles to right field, but not so good at hitting home runs in that direction. Eight of his nine homers in 2013 were to left field while all four of his homers in 2014 have been to left.

"You’ve seen him hit the ball the other way," Farrell said. "On occasion, he might hit the ball in the bullpen (for an opposite-field home run)."

But pitchers aren't giving him much to work with inside. Only 14.2 percent of all the pitches he's seen have been on the inner third of the strike zone.

"Nothing to the pull side like he’s built to do," Farrell said.

Most bizarre is Pedroia's sudden decrease in production at Fenway Park, where he's historically hit .314 with an .867 OPS compared to a .286 average with a .765 OPS on the road.

In 2014, he's hitting better on the road, with a .746 OPS on the road compared to a .689 OPS at home.

While pitchers continue to pitch him outside, he hasn't been able to use the Green Monster as frequently as he has in the past.

Pedroia has had slow starts before, and he's been able to change his season totals from forgettable to brilliant with monster numbers after the All-Star break (see 2008, when he won the American League MVP). If he's going to do that this year, he'll have to do it against a savvy group of major league pitchers who aren't giving him much to work with on the inside part of the plate.

His last home run, a two-run shot off Oakland A's lefty Scott Kazmir, was on a breaking ball over the outside part of the plate. Pedroia still pulled it, sending it high over the left field wall.

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