Keep Smiling Tim! Yes, after all the preaching about how the Red Sox can’t hit lefties and Scott Kazmir is their kryptonite, of course, the Sox put up some runs on him early last night. This is something I am very happy to be wrong about! Apparently Mike Lowell did not read anything on this blog, because he drove in 3 runs with a double and a home run.

J.D. Drew on the other hand, went 0-4 and looked awful at the plate. Yes, it was against a left hander, but those couple weeks of putting good swings on the ball seem to have subsided. I have been waiting all year for this guy to come around, and I thought he may well have turned the Julio Lugo corner last week on the home stand after posting a couple 3 hit games, but between watching 6 pitches go by him with the game on the line on Sunday and his pitiful performance last night, I am not so sure that is coming. If its any consolation, Trot Nixon has ceased to be an every day player, and is only hitting .261 in 287 at bats (to Drew’s .262 in 363 at bats). So he is still an adequate right fielder - but certainly not the $70 million dollar man we though we had.

Plus, more importantly, the power numbers are all but gone. This is a guy who hit 15 home runs in half a season 2 years ago - and now in more at bats than he had that year, he only has 6. How can a guy hit 1/3 as many home runs in double the plate appearences just 2 years later? Gordon Edes writes today that he is actually on pace to be the third worst center fielder (in terms of home runs at least) in Red Sox history!

J.D. Drew has only six home runs this season. He is on pace to match some of the lower homer totals posted by Red Sox right fielders. Only two Red Sox players who played at least 70 percent of their games in right field and had sufficient plate appearances to qualify for the batting title have hit fewer than 10 home runs in a season. Jim Piersall hit three home runs in 1953 and eight in 1954, while Al Zarilla hit nine in both 1949 and 1950.

J.D. Screwed indeed. Let’s hope he can pull a Mark Bellhorn and only hit well when it counts in the playoffs… Otherwise we may have to put him to work with Matt Clement cleaning the stadium and selling peanuts in order to get some value out of his contract.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 10:44 am and is filed under Game Recaps, General Postings, Red Sox History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.