August 14, 2008
Looking for Runs
A good pitching duel between Andy Sonnanstine and Justin Duchscherer ended when Ben Zobrist doubled home the go-ahead run in the seventh Wednesday night as the Rays maintain their lead in the AL East with a 3-2 win over the Athletics. Oakland continues to sputter offensively. This was the 20th game in their last 26 in which they scored three runs or less.
Looking at the individual hitters, you can find something positive to say only about Cust, Suzuki and Brown, but none of them are great. The overall numbers are absolutely dreadful. An individual player hitting .218/.289/.318 is waiting for a ticket to the minor leagues. The batters have almost 40 more strikeouts than hits, and almost three times as many strikeouts as walks. To turn the Ks around, opposition pitchers are striking out 8.5 per nine against the Athletics in this stretch. There's no way an offense can be successful when they can't put the ball in play often enough. Maybe it's time for the whole team to start choking up on the bat.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:23 AM
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Offense
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Sure, the numbers are ugly, but I think you can say something nice about Carlos Gonzalez as well as Cust, Suzuki and Brown. Yes, 280/333/390 is pretty ugly, but it isn't horrid, particularly for a rookie surrounded by garbage.