Ankiel Homers Twice, Battling Drew Brothers
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Around the Bases
Rick Ankiel homered twice yesterday giving him three homers in twelve at at bats since returning to Cardinals and the major leagues for the first time since 2004. Question is why did the Cardinals wait so long to call him up? It took him 87 at bats to hit his first two major league homers and now with 99 at bats he has five homers.... John Lackey and Josh Beckett won their fifteenth games of the season yesterday. Last year Johan Santana and Chien-Ming Wang led the AL in wins with 19 and Lackey and Beckett still would need five wins each to become 20 game winners in 2007 and with so many no decisions there is no guarantee either will win 20 games. J.D. Drew is struggling to stay ahead of his lesser known brother Stephen Drew who has two more homers than J.D. Stephen is only six runs batted in behind his brother who is making about $14 million more than Stephen. J.D. has hit a grand total of two homers in Fenway Park so it is easy to see why Red Sox nation is not thrilled with Drew. He hasn't homered since the All Star game in 77 at bats. It will take a late season surge for Drew to even have 60 runs batted in. Cannot imagine a more idiotic free agent signing than the signing of Drew by the Red Sox. He is hitting .152 against the Yankees with 5 hits in 33 at bats and .111 against the Tigers with 2 hits in 18 at bats for a total of 7 hits in 51 trips to the plate against two of the best teams in American League showing he is not a money player. Scott Boras did his job wrangling the huge contract from the Red Sox but Drew has not performed like a $14 million player should perform.
