During Tuesday night’s exciting 6-4 come-from-behind win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, AM 570 radio broadcasters Rick Monday and Kevin Kennedy repeatedly said that they noticed that Dodgers superstar rookie center fielder Joc Pederson appeared to have altered his swing – albeit only slightly.

Oh sure, Joc still swung as hard as ever and is still a sucker for a fastball that is up and in, and he still struck out looking once (for which he came dangerously close to being ejected for showing up veteran home plate umpire Mike Winters), but in each of his other four at-bats the 23-year-old Palo Alto, CA native kept his head in and on the ball instead of flying open and looking away during his powerful swing.

The results were a hard hit ground out to short, a well hit fly out to center and two sharp singles back up the middle. This clearly shows that he is staying on the ball and seeing it all the way.

There isn’t anyone happier to see Joc Pederson beginning to hit better than Dodgers batting coach Mark McGwire, who is frequently seen working with the young slugger. It’s clear that the two have developed a close bond between them. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

Although Pederson’s 2 for 5 night is an extremely small sample size and needs to be taken with a grain of salt, if the hard-swinging slugger continues to try to drive the ball back up the middle (or tries to go the opposite way when pitched that way), there is a very good chance that the potential 2015 NL Rookie of the Year will only get better in the second half – and that’s a mind-boggling thought.