Friday, June 12, 2009

Nuf Sed 

Choice cuts from this week's Hit List, including about as much as I have to say about the Yankees' recent sweep by the Red Sox:

[#1 Dodgers] Riding high in April (.306/.423/.553) but shot down in May (.211/.306/.295), Andre Ethier has picked himself up and gotten back in the race. Collecting walk-off hits on back-to-back nights against the Phillies, then bashing a pair of homers—his second two-fer in three days—against the Padres, he's hitting .400/.417/.914 with five jacks in June. That's a welcome power surge for an offense that's averaging 4.6 runs per game and hitting just .271/.341/.380 since Manny Ramirez's suspension, though they still lead the league in batting average and rank second in OBP.

[#2 Red Sox] Papi Pop? David Ortiz quadruples his season home run total by connecting three times in five days. with the middle shot kicking off the scoring in Boston's three-game sweep of the Yankees, against whom they're now 8-0. That Ortiz is hitting .310/.394/.655 in June may be cause for optimism, but until Thursday night he was still below the Mendoza Line overall, and his numbers since his celebrated mid-May benching (.195/.262/.403) aren't much better than what proceeded them. Also interesting: Ortiz is hitting better against lefties (.233/.284/.425) than righties (.187/.306/.291) despite a career platoon split that's 139 points of OPS higher against the latter.

[#7 Yankees] We Searched All of Recorded History But Couldn't Find Anyone Who Sucked Worse: Chien-Ming Wang fails to escape the third inning against the Red Sox amid a three-game sweep in Fenway. The Yankees are now 0-8 this year against the Sox, their longest season-opening losing streak against their rivals since 1912; they've been outscored 55-31 in those games. On the subject of pre-World War I factoids, Wang's 21.61 ERA through five starts is the highest since 1913, when baseball began tracking the stat. He's on a short leash as far as remaining in the rotation, with Phil Hughes awaiting another turn.

[#26 White Sox] We'll Meet Again: Ozzie Guillen erupts at his team's lack of execution and threatens plenty of face time: "Good teams win games. Horse**** teams have meetings." Alas, things only get worse for the Sox amid a 2-8 skid as Carlos Quentin is diagnosed with a tear which will sideline him through the All-Star break. He's hitting just .229/.325/.458 and hasn't homered since April 29.

God bless Ozzie Guillen for making the White Sox Hit List entries among the more enjoyable to compile.

Labels: Dodgers, Hit List, Yankees

--posted by Jay at 2:25 PM LINK 0 comments