We are a quarter of the way through the season, and we are back where we started: .500 ball. But at least we’ve chosen an interesting way to get to .500.
- The first 10 games we were 5-5, which included a four-game win streak.
- In the second 10 games, we were 7-3, and things seemed pretty good.
- In the third 10, we were 2-8 and dispondent.
- In the last 10 games, we were 6-4, including a four-game win streak and a four-game losing streak.
For us fans, it has been a rollercoaster. Offensively, we’ve been terrible, at least until the last couple of weeks. In the previous 11 games, they have averaged 4.5 runs per game. On the season, they have averaged 3.9 runs per game.
On the pitching side, they have a 4.23 ERA. They had a down stretch: the 10 games from April 19th to 30th allowed an average of 6.5 runs per game.
The hopeful part is that several hitters who had a rough start to the season seem to have picked things up:
- Alejandro Kirk hit .421/.450/.474 in the last week and .375/.390/.475 over the past two weeks.
- Addison Barger, who was hitting .139 after the game on May 4th, has hit .444/.500/.778 since. He’s been clubbing balls. He leads the team in average exit velocity (96.1 mph) and average bat speed (76.3 mph). He has a five-game hitting streak, with a .444/.500/.778, 1 home run and 3 doubles. A nice little run, made nicer because there were thoughts that we needed a third baseman. It is good to have a reminder that small sample sizes are small sample sizes (of course, the hot steak is also a small sample.
- Nathan Lukes is hitting .351/.432/.541 in his last 13 games with 2 home runs.
- Bo Bichette is also on a nice little run, batting .275/.351/.471 in his last 12 games.
- Vlad is hitting .333/.426/.436 in his last 10 games. More power would be nice, but we can’t always get what we want.
- Ernie Clement is on a six-game hitting streak, with a .417/.423/.500 line. On April 18th, he was hitting .186; his average is now .267.
- George Springer’s batting average is dropping, but he has hit three home runs in his last nine games.
After a few more weeks of this, we’ll stop complaining about the batting coaches. Well, that might be too much to expect, but we’ll slow our complaining about the batting coach (maybe someday we’ll get past thinking hitting coaches control the players at the plate).