Lin collects career-high five hits for Sea Dogs

Tzu-Wei Lin has developed a reputation as a glove-first player at shortstop. On Wednesday, he showed that his bat has value as well.
The Red Sox prospect set a career high for hits in a game, going 5-for-5 with a triple, a double, two runs scored and a stolen base in Double-A Portland's 4-2 win over Erie at UPMC Park. 

"I wasn't thinking too much about it being a big day," Lin said through interpreter and Sea Dogs coach Mickey Jiang. "I was trying to take things at-bat to at-bat and tried to handle the pitches in front of me. Thankfully, they were all hits."
Lin singled in the first and third innings, then tripled for his first extra-base hit of the day in the fifth. He came around to score on another three-bagger by top Red Sox prospectRafael Devers in the next at-bat, tying the game at 1-1. He singled again in the sixth but was left stranded. 
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The 23-year-old's fifth and final hit proved to be his most critical. With the score knotted at 2-2, the left-handed hitter lined a leadoff double to right open the ninth. Two batters later, Jeremy Barfield plated Lin with a single to left to give the Sea Dogs the lead for good. 
"I didn't think too much about the other four hits," he said of that ninth-inning at-bat. "The only thing going through my mind was getting on base. I was the leadoff hitter that inning, and if I could get on, I believed my teammates would bring me home."

Lin's five hits bested his previous career high of four, a total he reached on June 9, 2015 with Class A Advanced Salem and May 4, 2014 with Class A Greenville. It also snapped a bit of a cold streak for the Taiwan native, who entered the day 1-for-17 (.059) over his last five games. That rough stretch caused his season average to drop from .303 to .275. Wednesday's breakout alone almost erased those losses, pushing Lin's average back up to .299 -- a 24-point gain in one contest. 
"The previous [two] games here in Erie, I felt like I was a little too passive," Lin said. "I tried to be aggressive and not let good pitches get past me, and hopefully, they would fall in for hits."
The data backs up Lin's claims of aggression. He saw 18 pitches over his five plate appearances Wednesday, eight of which were strikes. Five of those eight strikes resulted in a hit. 

This is Lin's third season in the Eastern League, and his most successful at the plate by far. He hit .202/.268/.266 in 46 games with Portland in 2015 and saw that slash line climb to .223/.287/.293 over 108 contests last season. Following Wednesday, he's hitting .299/.379/.461 with a career-high four homers in his first 47 games of the 2017 season.
Boston signed Lin for $2.05 million -- the highest bonus given to a position player out of Taiwan -- back in June 2012 and pushed him up the chain despite the fact that he never posting an OPS above .698 at the lower levels. The Sox tried to make the most of Lin's defensive ability and speed in 2016 by giving him looks at center field, second base and third. Though he's back to mostly full-time duty at shortstop this season, he's made four starts in center, and Wednesday marked his second start at second with each of those coming in his last five games.
Lin said he had no strong opinions on being moved around the field these past two seasons, only that he hoped the versatility could help Portland and his chances at advancing his career beyond Double-A. It's more likely that continued offensive improvements are what could give him his first sniff of Triple-A Pawtucket, and he realizes that.
"It all comes down to consistency," Lin said. "I don't want to let the result cause a huge difference in me because I want to stay consistent in what got me here in the first place. That's what will get me to the next level as I improve my skills."