Adrian Gonzalez didn't wait long before making his presence felt with the Dodgers.
Hours after being traded from Los Angeles to Boston, the first baseman hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat.
Ever since, though, Gonzalez has been slumping. Saturday's game against the Diamondbacks marked his third straight hitless game — 15 at-bats in all.
Gonzalez has a .182 batting average with the Dodgers. But he says the problems didn't start in L.A.
"For whatever reason, I came into this year, and from Day One, there were a lot of bad habits in my swing," Gonzalez told the Los Angeles Times. "It's basically been a yearlong process of trying to work through it."
The 30-year-old criticized the Boston media after leaving the Red Sox, saying he never fit in with the team because he didn't visibly show passion or frustration. That part of Gonzalez's personality continues in Los Angeles.
"In moments when you're trying to come up with that big hit to win the game and it doesn't come through, I wish those emotions would come out of me, but they don't," he said. "I can't force them for the sake of forcing them, to show that I care. If I was to show those kinds of emotions, it's almost, in a way, fake. That's not who I am."
From a power standpoint, Gonzalez is having a season he'd like to forget. In 131 games for the Red Sox and Dodgers, he's hit just 16 home runs and is on pace to finish with his lowest home run total since 2005 (six).
