Anthony Fenech

Detroit Free Press

KANSAS CITY – Justin Upton looked bored.

The Detroit Tigers outfielder walked around the batting cage on Friday evening at Kauffman Stadium, sometimes standing against it, other times talking to his teammates that were taking their swings. On Saturday evening, he stayed in the outfield, holding court with a couple of teammates in leftfield.

Upton is hot these days. He is hitting .347 in the past 14 games since the Tigers sat him down for three days to reset. He has seven home runs in that span, the latest on Sunday afternoon the biggest, a two-run home run in the top of the eighth inning to give the Tigers a 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals.

The swings he’s taken in the past two weeks have been different. After a minor mechanical tweak, he’s been swinging with more confidence. He’s also been swinging less, and not taking batting practice on the field.

“It’s working right now,” Upton said. “I’ve been getting better work in the cage right now and I don’t have to take anybody else’s swings. I can focus on what I’m trying to work on.”

It’s not the first time Upton has ditched on-field batting practice, he said. He did it last season with the San Diego Padres and the season before with the Atlanta Braves.

Usually, he hits in the second group of Tigers hitters, along with Miguel Cabrera, J.D. Martinez and Victor Martinez. Not taking batting practice on the field has helped him hone in on those minor mechanical changes, working on them in a different atmosphere than the field.

Since Upton has returned to form recently, he has been a key cog in the Tigers’ lineup.

“Huge,” J.D. Martinez said. “Right now, he’s been the difference-maker and we’ve been seeing it. It’s one of those things where you get him going, it extends our lineup that much longer.”

And in certain situations, Martinez has felt Upton’s presence behind him alter the way pitchers are throwing to him.

On his Sunday afternoon home run, Upton hit a pitch middle-in from former Tigers reliever Joakim Soria to right-centerfield. Going the other way hasn’t been a focus point, he said, but Upton performs best when he is attacking the gaps. In the second inning, he put the Tigers on the board with a double to right-centerfield.

He ground his way through the first five months of the season, slumping more often than not, and could make up for it in a big way with a strong final month.

“You gotta stay confident that what you do on a yearly basis and how you prepare, it’s going to show up at some point,” Upton said. “And it’s shown up and I’m having fun with it.”

Now, he has eased off the grind a little bit by not taking batting practice on the field. The results, however coincidental they may be, are finally there.

“It’s just kind of one of those things where you just let it ride,” J.D. Martinez said. Martinez has given up on-field batting practice at times in his career before.

“So I tell him, ‘I don’t even want to see you out here. Beat it.’”

Contact Anthony Fenech: afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech.

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