BOSTON -- If Jacoby Ellsbury's approach had been what the Red Sox had hoped, it's hard to imagine that he would've been dropped from the leadoff spot in April.
Manager Terry Francona never called his center fielder home run happy, but the numbers showed he might have been: on April 18, Ellsbury had a team-best four home runs, but just a .200 average and a .286 on-base percentage.
Three games later, Ellsbury started the 18-game hit streak he extended in Monday's game, the longest current streak in the Majors. Coincidentally or not, he hasn't homered since, and he's hitting .291 with a .345 on-base percentage on the year.
The change, Francona said, hasn't been mechanical.
"He's hit the ball to all three fields," Francona said prior to Monday's game about the reason for Ellsbury's success of late. "Again, with speed like that, if you do that, you usually talk about things evening out. I'm not sure they're supposed to even out when you can run that fast and use the entire field. I think you're going to get more hits than you're supposed to."
For Ellsbury's part, he also said that his approach hasn't changed.
Hitting coach Dave Magadan agreed with Francona's assessment that Ellsbury's simply using all fields better. Although Magadan and Francona didn't say it, that could go hand in hand with a more concentrated focus on base hits rather than homers.
Magadan's thoughts on whether Ellsbury had gotten outside himself at the start of this season were layered. He didn't feel that it was wrong for Ellsbury to look at his power potential, but he did think Ellsbury needed to pick and choose his spots to utilize said power better.
"As a player, you've got to feel like you can get better and better every day," Magadan said. "I don't think he's looking back to '08 and saying that's where I want to be. I think he realizes he's got some strength and some pop in his bat, and he's just got to realize in certain situations you've got to continue to use the field, especially with two strikes."