OK, I had a nice piece all prepared on winning streaks, and the difficulty the Jays have in ever getting hot... and then I looked at last night's starting lineup.
It's not like Royce Clayton has never batted leadoff. He has done so in 223 major league games.
And when hitting out of the leadoff spot, he's batted .239 with a .290 OBP.
Well, maybe he owns Noah Lowry. Hmm, not really. He's 4-15 with a couple of walks. Not bad, I guess - it's a .353 OBP, and I actually take batter-pitcher matchups far, far more seriously than everyone else who reads or writes at this corner of the Net.
Mock me, I don't mind. I believe in them. (Me and Earl Weaver!)
Well, only three Blue Jays have ever had a hit off Lowry, and one of them is John Thomson. Phillips is 2-4 against him, and Troy Glaus, oddly enough, is 0-9.
Oh, who knows. Managers just play hunches sometimes. They do things that really can't be justified by anything we know and understand - but on the other hand, they also know all kinds of things that we don't know.
Never, never forget that part.
But it still seems kind of nuts to me.
I'm actually starting to think about hitting Aaron Hill in the leadoff spot, if only because I'm getting sick to death of all the double plays. I hate the damn things (and the early innings against Mr Lowry are not exactly improving my disposition). Hill is on pace, as they say, to hit into 33 DPs this season, which would obliterate the team record.
Nice game by Verlander last night, by the way.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20070612223843751