It’s becoming clear why Chaim Bloom wanted Kyle Schwarber for his team.

Weeks ago, fans hammered the Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer for not doing more at the trade deadline. Schwarber was having an All-Star season, but he didn’t seem like the right fit for this team.

Anthony Rizzo looked like the more obvious choice. A first baseman who could step in and fill a position that has underachieved for Boston.

Instead, Rizzo went to the New York Yankees and made an immediate impact with three home runs in the first six games while Schwarber remained on the injured list with a hamstring injury. The Red Sox waited nearly two weeks for Schwarber to get healthy.

It was worth the wait.

Entering Boston’s series at Tampa Bay, Schwarber had played 13 games with the Sox, hitting .349 with a stunning .500 on-base percentage. He’s averaging a walk per game, and has already popped a pair of home runs.

Meantime, Rizzo has cooled off and is hitting just .219 with the Yankees. His OPS is .390 lower than Schwarber’s.

Certainly, Rizzo is a more natural fit defensively. Schwarber played his first full game ever at first base over the weekend, and on Sunday didn’t make a play on a Jose Ramirez fly ball that drove in a run. A catch would’ve ended the inning.

Yet the impact Schwarber is having with his bat, and his approach, is undeniable.

Sunday marked just the fourth time Schwarber didn’t reach base safely at least twice in his 13 games with the Red Sox. He doesn’t chase pitches outside the zone. He has power and plate discipline, and wants to be known as a complete hitter.

“I take pride in knowing the strike zone, in taking walks,” Schwarber told me last week, “but I also value hitting. I don’t want people to think it’s all about the three true outcomes. It’s hitting, situational hitting. I pride myself in that.”

Those “three true outcomes” – homers, walks and strikeouts – have dominated the game in recent years. Schwarber wants to be a throwback. He wants to put the ball in play and make things happen. He just doesn’t want to chase after pitches outside the zone.

Sound familiar? It should. That’s the approach Red Sox Manager Alex Cora has been talking about since the All-Star break, when his hitters started chasing pitches outside the strike zone and the losses started piling up.

“He has been doing an amazing job,” said Cora. “Just talking about his approach, talking about the at-bats, talking about grinding out at-bats, and then obviously what he does out there, it’s easy to see, right?”

It wasn’t always that way. When Schwarber made his major league debut in 2015 he was a guy trying to launch and go deep.

“There were a lot of big swings and chases,” said Red Sox Hall of Famer Kevin Youkilis, who worked with the Chicago Cubs as a scout and development consultant when Schwarber made his debut. “He was trying to crush the ball, and not seeing the ball well. He looks calmer in the box now and looks to have a better plan, taking borderline pitches or strikes that are not in the location he is looking for.”

That discipline is serving him well. It’s also something his teammates are noticing.

“He’s a different voice,” said Cora. “He’s a veteran guy that has won. He understands what it takes to win the World Series and to have good lineups. The fact he’s preaching that is always helpful for a team.”

Now, Cora has a veteran who is the embodiment of the approach he wants his team to take into the batter’s box. While the manager tries to figure out how to prop up a sagging bullpen, his offense is taking flight once again.

Tom Caron is a studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on NESN. His column runs on Tuesdays in the Portland Press Herald.

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