As this morning’s Inquirer pointed out, key hits propelled the Phillies to a 8-6 victory last night in Los Angeles. All year we’ve heard how the inabilty to drive in runners in scoring position has been killing the Phils. Not a game goes by where someone doesn’t mention how the Phils are last in the NL in AVG with RISP. On a whole though the Phillies lineup seems to be hitting well – batters 2-5 all have OPS over .900. Yet in ‘clutch situations’ they come up short, right? Well, looking at the table below you will see that not all Phillies are batting poorly with runners in scoring position, only the ones that have the most ABs in that situation – namely, Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell. That’s the problem with average statistics, they tend to gloss over individual data points due to outliers. So each time you hear how bad the Phils are batting with runners in scoring position, just remember it’s not the whole team that’s batting poorly, just the guys that matter the most (and Jimmy Rollins).
| Player | AB w/ RISP | AVG w/ RISP | Pitches/PA |
| Jimmy Rollins |
39 |
.179 |
3.43 |
| Chase Utley |
37 |
.351 |
4.04 |
| Bobby Abreu |
50 |
.320 |
4.49 |
| Ryan Howard |
56 |
.232 |
3.80 |
| Pat Burrell |
70 |
.229 |
4.22 |
| Aaron Rowand |
34 |
.294 |
3.23 |
| Shane Victorino |
26 |
.269 |
3.53 |
| David Bell |
40 |
.300 |
3.54 |
| Mike Lieberthal |
33 |
.273 |
3.03 |
| Sal Fasano |
17 |
.118 |
3.44 |
Next Saturday is the Phillies Nation bus trip to DC. Tickets are $40 and we have about 5 seats still available, so if you are interested, contact us by Monday at the latest. If you live in the Washington, DC area and would like to meet up with the group and sit among your loyal comrades, you can purchase a group ticket for $14, again just let us know by Monday.
Don’t forget today’s game has a 4:10 EST start time. After tearing up the minors, Eudo Brito will make his first start of the year in the bigs. Go Phils!
Latest Comments