Frank Schwindel brings fresh perspective to Ducks after year in Japan

There’s plenty of gas left in Frank “The Tank” Schwindel.

Schwindel spent 2023 with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league after playing 145 MLB games from 2019-22 for the Royals, A’s and Cubs. In addition to having the opportunity to taste authentic Japanese food and getting used to driving on the other side of the road, he said his time in Japan provided a new perspective for his approach to the diamond.

“Just to see a different style of baseball is really cool,” Schwindel said. “The attention to detail, they work so much harder than us in the sense of reps. They take so much pride in defense, bunt defense, running the bases, the little things.”

Perhaps that mentality of focusing on the details is what helped the Ducks manage a comeback in a 7-5 victory over the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars on Sunday afternoon at Fairfield Properties Ballpark in Central Islip.

The Ducks trailed 4-3 entering the eighth inning, when they scored four runs to flip the momentum and secure their first series sweep since May 21-23 against Staten Island.

“It’s great for us .  .  . That’s now four in a row, and we’ve been playing good baseball,” manager Lew Ford said. “Playing nine innings and not giving up, today we were rewarded for that.”

Tyler Dearden was 3-for-5 with two runs and scored on a wild pitch in the seventh. Schwindel went 1-for-4 with a run, and others stepped up at just the right times.

In the eighth, Aaron Antonini delivered a huge double to rightfield before JC Encarnacion (groundout) and Scott Kelly (single) drove in runs. Manuel Geraldo then ripped the wheels off the Flying Boxcars with a two-run home run.

“You never know who’s going to step up that day,” Ford said. “We have some guys who are very consistent, but today Kelly stepped up with a big hit, Antonini stepped up with a big hit. A different day is a different guy.”

“We got some guys who can bang in this lineup,” Schwindel said. “There’s not too many guys you can pitch around.”

Schwindel is stepping up to the plate only 40 miles east of his old stamping grounds at St. John’s University. Schwindel, who turns 32 on Saturday, has struck out only 11 times (7.3% of his 150 plate appearances). No player with at least 100 plate appearances has struck out less than Schwindel, and he boasts the second-best batting average (.369) in the Atlantic League. The Ducks are 25-28, tied for third place in the five-team North Division.

“We want to play good baseball and keep this going,” Ford said. “We’ll see where we’re at at the end of the first half.”