TAMPA, Fla. — Comeuppance is such a great word. Really, just a wonderful concept.

Who doesn’t like the idea of a bully getting the bum’s rush? Or a loudmouth’s target getting the last laugh?

You might have seen it Monday night in an otherwise dreary Rays game when some fan was escorted out of the bleachers at Steinbrenner Field after allegedly crossing the line from excited to boorish while shouting at Yandy Diaz.

In his next at-bat, Diaz hit a home run.

That’s got the whiff of a cheesy Hollywood script, doesn’t it? The kind of story they tell in the corner bar of a be-careful-where-you’re-walking neighborhood. Except, in this case, vengeance shouldn’t be the final takeaway.

Instead, this feels like a fine time for appreciation.

Appreciation of all that Diaz has done in a Rays uniform. Appreciation for one of the most delightful smiles in the game. Appreciation for a hitter who has one of the more remarkable swings you will ever see in a batter’s box.

That’s not hyperbole, by the way. Diaz truly has a rare swing in a number of ways.

First of all, there is the remarkable consistency of his hitting stroke. When Diaz returned from the four-day All-Star break with a three-hit, four-RBI night against the Orioles, manager Kevin Cash joked that it was probably the first time Diaz had picked up a bat that week. With a slight grin, Diaz acknowledged that was pretty close to the truth.

Unlike most players, Diaz rarely takes batting practice on the field. He has got enough confidence and done enough baseline prep over the years that he does not overwork his swing. Instead, he’ll take some hard tosses in an indoor batting cage to sync up his timing and then he’s good to go.

The Rays learned this lesson near the end of his first season in Tampa Bay. Diaz had fractured his foot in mid-July and was expected to miss the rest of the season. Yet, with the Rays heading toward a one-game wild-card showdown with Oakland, Diaz got a handful of at-bats in an instructional league intrasquad game, and then flew to Toronto for the regular-season finale the next day.

At the time, Cash did not sound overly hopeful that Diaz would be available for the postseason. And yet, a couple of days later, he was on the active roster and hitting leadoff against the Athletics. He homered in his first at-bat. Two innings later, he hit another.

“He’s a born hitter, and that dates back to the wild-card game against Oakland,” hitting coach Chad Mottola said. “We didn’t anticipate him being active for the playoffs, the thought was just maybe get him a few (rehab) at-bats and if we got deep enough in the playoffs maybe he would be available.

“But as we talked through it, he is the one guy who can wake up and hit. It’s nothing you can teach, and it’s nothing you want other guys to do or emulate but that’s Yandy.”

Which brings us to more oddities regarding Diaz’s swing. His bat is quick enough that he waits a fraction of a second longer than most hitters to decipher a pitch and decide whether to swing. This often leads to him hitting the ball to the opposite field because the pitch gets deeper into the strike zone before he swings.

Diaz’s swing path is also flatter than most hitters of his size. And that means he hits more ground-balls than you would expect. His ground-ball percentage this season (53.6%) has more in common with Chandler Simpson (58.6%) than Cal Raleigh (25.4%).

Except, because of his size and strength, Diaz hits the ball harder than almost anyone else. He has been in MLB’s top 20 in exit velocity in each of the last four seasons. The only other hitters who can say that are Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Rafael Devers and Matt Chapman.

All of those guys are bona fide power hitters. And that’s led Diaz and the Rays to occasionally ponder the idea of adding more launch angle to his swing to potentially add more home runs to his game. But something is usually lost from his natural swing in the process.

“After winning the batting title (in 2023) Yandy was searching for ways to get more power, to put the ball in the air more. He wanted 30 home runs, and there’s no doubt in my mind he could do that,” Mottola said. “But, to do that, we’re going to sacrifice some swing decisions, we’re going to sacrifice some batting average. Yandy has a ton of pride and he doesn’t like taking empty swings, which you have to do to try to hit the ball out front. You have to make some mistakes to hit home runs and consistently get the ball in the air.

“We tried again at the beginning of this year after a couple of easy home runs to center field, but every time we try to add a little bit on, we take Yandy away from being Yandy. So about a month and a half ago, we had one of those talks of, ‘Let’s just go back to being Yandy and just win a batting title.’ You don’t have that option with any other player.”

Since that discussion, Diaz has hit .382 and still managed to hit eight home runs in 36 games. He’s now on pace for what would be a career high of 25 homers.

That may be a hot streak, but it’s not a fluke. Since 2022, Diaz is 12th in the majors in OPS+, which takes into account ballpark factors while measuring on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

The other names on that list are typically high-profile superstars with outrageous contracts, MVP awards and multiple All-Star appearances. For whatever reason — lack of home runs, smaller market, language barrier — Diaz has never enjoyed the same type of fame.

But that doesn’t mean anyone in the clubhouse has a lack of appreciation for what he’s done.

“He does not get nearly enough credit. He is one of the best pure hitters in baseball,” Cash said. “You go around the American League East and ask hitters, ‘Who is the best hitter in the American League?’ you’re going to hear one name for sure, and that’s Aaron Judge.

“But I can’t imagine Yandy wouldn’t be in the top three.”

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