I just spent a half-hour staring at this table. Here's what the Giants look like with runners in scoring position and two outs:
| Rk | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brandon Belt | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | .333 | .500 | .667 | 1.167 | 1.000 |
| 2 | Buster Posey | 32 | 25 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 4 | .280 | .438 | .520 | .958 | .263 |
| 3 | Pablo Sandoval | 25 | 23 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 4 | .304 | .360 | .478 | .838 | .333 |
| 4 | Freddy Sanchez | 28 | 24 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 3 | .292 | .393 | .333 | .726 | .333 |
| 5 | Nate Schierholtz | 41 | 37 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 4 | 5 | .270 | .341 | .378 | .720 | .290 |
| 6 | Brandon Crawford | 34 | 29 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 6 | .172 | .294 | .345 | .639 | .182 |
| 7 | Eli Whiteside | 20 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 3 | .154 | .450 | .154 | .604 | .200 |
| 8 | Aubrey Huff | 61 | 51 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 10 | 10 | .196 | .328 | .275 | .602 | .225 |
| 9 | Aaron Rowand | 31 | 26 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 4 | .192 | .323 | .231 | .553 | .227 |
| 10 | Jonathan Sanchez | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .200 | .333 | .200 | .533 | .250 |
| 11 | Cody Ross | 43 | 37 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 10 | .135 | .256 | .270 | .526 | .154 |
| 12 | Pat Burrell | 32 | 27 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 14 | .111 | .250 | .259 | .509 | .167 |
| 13 | Miguel Tejada | 28 | 25 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 1 | .160 | .250 | .240 | .490 | .167 |
| 14 | Jeff Keppinger | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .167 | .286 | .167 | .452 | .200 |
| 15 | Andres Torres | 34 | 28 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 | .107 | .265 | .179 | .443 | .158 |
| 16 | Chris Stewart | 20 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | .063 | .250 | .125 | .375 | .063 |
| 17 | Mike Fontenot | 18 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | .067 | .222 | .133 | .356 | .091 |
| 18 | Mark DeRosa | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .167 | .167 | .167 | .333 | .250 |
| 19 | Tim Lincecum | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | .000 | .222 | .000 | .222 | .000 |
| 20 | Emmanuel Burriss | 12 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .083 | .083 | .083 | .167 | .100 |
| 21 | Ryan Vogelsong | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| 22 | Hector Sanchez | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | |
| 23 | Barry Zito | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| 24 | Bill Hall | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| 25 | Matt Cain | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| 26 | Orlando Cabrera | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| 27 | Madison Bumgarner | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| 28 | Carlos Beltran | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| 29 | Conor Gillaspie | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | ||||
| 30 | Jeremy Affeldt | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | ||||
| Team Total | 527 | 449 | 75 | 17 | 0 | 8 | 103 | 72 | 103 | .167 | .290 | .258 | .549 | .198 |
That's mesmerizing. It's performance art.
I think I'm proud of following this team in some weird way. It's a special experience.
I watched every one of those at-bats. Anyone who watched every one of those should get a Croix de Candlestick for their efforts. It's for the same thing -- surviving something cold and miserable to prove you're a true fan/stupid person. That deserves a trinket.
Some context: teams generally hit worse with two outs and runners in scoring position. The National League is hitting a collective .253/.319/.389 this year. With two outs and runners in scoring position, the National League is hitting .226/.334/.349. Pitchers seem less likely to give hitters a pitch to hit, so up goes the OBP and down goes the SLG.
The Giants are hitting .241/.303/.358 this season as a team. With two outs and runners in scoring position, they're hitting .167/.290/.258. That looks like the line F.P. Santangelo would put up if he were playing today -- buncha walks with feckless contact. I also like how of the four players at the top, two are broken and one's in the minors. Bunch of showoffs. Team's better off without them.
I'm not smart enough to know why, really. The batting average on balls in play for the Giants is about .100 lower with RISP and two outs. It's .019 lower for the league overall. Maybe that's bad luck. Maybe it's the result of 30 different hitters turning their brains off when they shouldn't.
The horrific offenses of the past several years -- 2007, 2008, 2009 -- didn't have this kind of discrepancy, so I'm inclined not to think it's more of a bad luck thing. Because if impotence with RISP and two outs is a problem that predictably embarrasses bad hitters, the Giants would have shown that same problem when they were cornering the market on bad hitters over the past several seasons.
Don't know. But it surrrrre is frustrating to watch. The Giants can't hit anyways. To have them strand the runners that they do get on base ... that's what makes it art.
The Giants were shut out again. This time by the Pirates. Charlie Morton, to be specific. And the Giants are still in first place. Embarrassing.