Offensive Slump Spread to a Majority of the Lineup
The slump for the big boys in the Indians lineup continued Monday night, and right now despite what Eric Wedge, there really appears to be no end in sight. Wedge said postgame that he feels the letdown at the plate as of late is not like earlier in the year when the team couldn’t get anything going offensively, but the numbers appear to point out otherwise. Let’s call it what it is – the offense is going nowhere fast.
The worst part is the lineup is being undone by players that the team truly is counting on and needs to hit, otherwise it’s going nowhere fast in 2008. Ryan Garko, who got a specific comment Monday night by Wedge in the post game as someone who is struggling, was the teams most productive player at the plate through the first two and a half weeks of the season, but now is in the midst of a 0-for-23 slump.
Add that to the on-going lack of production for Travis Hafner, (.219, 21-for-96) and the awful start for Jhonny Peralta (.247) and it’s easy to see why the starting pitching has gone mostly undone by the lack of hitting. Take a look at some of the other soft numbers at the plate:
Jason Michaels 11-for-55 .200 0 homers 8 RBI
Jamey Carroll 7-for-32 .219 0 homers 3 RBI
Asdrubal Cabrera 16-for-73 .219 0 homers 8 RBI
Ryan Garko 20-for-88 .227 2 homers 12 RBI
Matt has covered Major League Baseball and the "other two" Pro teams in Cleveland since 1994. He has been on the beat of the Indians in full-time mode since 1996, working for various raido and print networks around the country.
