Former Gamecock Justin Smoak explains the key to his breakout season

These are the type of numbers Justin Smoak always envisioned putting up in Major League Baseball.

The former South Carolina star and current Toronto Blue Jays slugger entered Saturday hitting .306 with 20 home runs and 48 RBIs.

Smoak, a former first-round pick of the Texas Rangers, is tied for fifth in MLB in homers and is in the top 20 in batting average and RBIs.

He said the key to his breakout season is a better approach at the plate.

“I stopped trying to hit homers and I’ve hit more than I ever have,” Smoak told The State this week. “When I got called up to the big leagues, as a young guy I felt like as a big leaguer I had to hit for power. I tried to hit balls 500 feet every pitch, and you can’t do that. I just got tired of not having competitive at-bats and wanted to be more competitive. For me that’s trying to use the whole field and square it up.”

During his final season at Stratford High School, Smoak hit 18 homers while batting .558 on his way to being name a high school All-American.

He went to South Carolina and hit 62 home runs in three seasons in a Gamecocks uniform, including 23 his junior year before being taken with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2008 MLB draft.

Smoak’s success as a power hitter continued during brief stints in the minors, but he was unable sustain that success once he reached the top level of his sport.

From 2010-16 the most homers he hit in a season was 20, and his highest batting average was .238.

Now, the 30-year-old Smoak said he has learned lessons throughout his career that he is putting to use. It’s all coming together for him in the batter’s box.

“When you’re a first-round pick and never really failed at playing this game and you get to the minor leagues and you don’t fail there and you get to the big leagues and all of a sudden you fail. … It’s not easy to handle,” Smoak said. “It was hard for me the last four or five years. I’m not going to say I’ve not enjoyed them, but at the same time it’s been difficult. I feel like right now I’m enjoying the game more. That was my goal going into this year, was to have fun playing the game again. I’ve been able to do that.”

Smoak has always been strong defensively and had the potential to hit the ball out of the park, which are big reasons why he continued to get regular opportunities, even without the offensive numbers he would have liked.

He is now rewarding the Blue Jays for sticking with him over the past three years after stops in Texas and Seattle.

“I finally feel like I’m back to where I was in college and the minor leagues, and I’ve shown flashes of it in the big leagues, but it just hasn’t been consistent. I feel like I’m trying to be more consistent now than I ever have,” Smoak said. “What I’m doing now is what I’ve always expected to do and I just haven’t done it. I feel like I finally have an approach to where it can last the whole year.”

Smoak is putting up numbers deserving of a spot in the All-Star Game and is hoping to be rewarded with one.

Ultimately, he is just happy to finally be playing up to his capabilities.

“I think that’s a goal every year. It’d be pretty cool. It’s out of my control, but it’d be pretty cool,” he said. “I’ve put the work in. I’ve worked on little things to get to where I want to be. Now I feel comfortable with where I’m at and I want to try to sustain that throughout the whole year.”

This story was originally published June 24, 2017 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Former Gamecock Justin Smoak explains the key to his breakout season."