After what has arguably been one of the toughest weeks of his eight-year major league career, the ball is finally beginning to drop for newly acquired Dodgers outfielder Josh Reddick.

The 29-year-old Savannah, Georgia native was acquired by the Dodgers at the August 1 non-waiver trade deadline from the Oakland Athletics along with left-hander Rich Hill in exchange for highly touted Dodgers pitching prospects Jharel Cotton, Grant Holmes and Frankie Montas; a move that, for all intents and purposes, brought an abrupt end to the career of oft-controversial outfielder Yasiel Puig with the Dodgers.

But through his first seven games in Dodger Blue, Reddick managed only two singles in his first 27 at-bats. And while this calculates out to a horrible .074 batting average and has many believing that the Dodgers “lost the trade” (as they say), anyone who witnessed these 27 at-bats – whether in person or on television – knows that Reddick has been hitting the ball extremely hard but “right at ’em” (as they also say).

When you take a closer look at Reddick’s first 27 at-bats you will notice that they were, for the most part, very good at-bats, with him working the count and having made contact in all but seven of them. And when he did make contact it was usually very hard contact, but again, hit directly at opposing players.

“It can be really frustrating. You kind of get over here because you’re a guy that they really wanted, you want to come over here and contribute,” Reddick said. “It is kind of tough to be able to handle it that way.”

It took eight games but Reddick finally collected his first multi-hit game as a Dodger on Wednesday afternoon. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Although Reddick wouldn’t admit that he has been pressing at the plate, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sees it a bit differently.

“I think that you can see the body language a little bit,” Roberts said, “when you hit a ball hard and it gets caught in left-center field, or you square a ball up and the second baseman is there … maybe a little bit of over swinging. But he’ll be fine.”

Fine indeed. In spite of suffering a heartbreaking 6-2 loss to the NL East fourth-place Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday afternoon that dropped his team back into second place in the NL West, Roberts tweaked his starting lineup a bit by moving the left-handed-hitting / right-handed-throwing Reddick out of the number three or four spot and into the number two hole. Reddick ended up going 2 for 5 on the day and scored one of the Dodgers two runs. It was his first multi-hit game with his new team.

“To get your first multi-hit game, it does feel really good,” Reddick told reporters after the game.

Even though Reddick is still hitting a meager .125 with his new team and has yet to collect his first extra base hit and run batted in, you get the sense that things are about to bust wide open for the former Middle Georgia College Knight.

…and not a moment too soon.