Lugo, Crisp, Drew... How well will they perform in the 2nd half?
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by Romiezzo
In yesterday's game, the Boston Red Sox defeated the Chicago White Sox in a landslide victory: 10-3. Josh Beckett earned his 13th win. Do you know who he should thank for run support? Other than a David Ortiz RBI single and a Jason Varitek sacrifice fly, Julio Lugo, Coco Crisp, and J.D. Drew all produced runs for the BoSox. Drew got the Red Sox started, as he wasted little time, by hitting what should have been a three run homer last night in the first inning. Coco Crisp (when the BoSox were down 3-1) hit a triple with the bases loaded in the fifth inning, driving in three runs and getting the lead, which ended up being probably the key factor to winning the game. Julio Lugo was next three innings later; he hit an 8th inning grand slam to help secure the victory. It is a coincidence that all three of the players that really helped have been in a slump during the season.
Julio Lugo has done amazingly as of late. He's finally answering back, as many Red Sox fans said how much they hate Lugo, and how they should trade him (if they could), and how bad he's doing. In July, he doing tremendous. In 16 games, he has a .400 BA so far, 2 HRs, 13 RBIs, 5 stolen bases, and a 1.032 OPS. After the all star game, his numbers are even better: in 9 games, he has hit 1 HR, 7 RBIs, 3 stolen bases, a .457 BA and a 1.086 OPS. In the past 10 games, he's hitting .500 (19-38), and is now on a 10 game hitting streak, and it seems like he's doing wonders for the Sox as of late, with 5 multi-hit games in the last 10 (4 of them being 3 hit games, 1 being 2).
Coco Crisp has seemed to be making progress, but very slowly. It seems like ever since they called up Jacoby Ellisbury in mid June, Coco has just seemed to do better on offense. He didn't have a .200 AVG until April 21st. He had a .221 BA on May 13th, and a .221 BA on June 13th. It seems like ever since then, he's been doing pretty well. Since then, he's had 9 multi hit games (out of 28), and he's brought up his OBP and SLG as well. He's been struggling to get in the .300s for both of them until June. He now has a .399 SLG and a .324 OBP, so he's really improving, and I think he'll raise his numbers as time goes by.
J.D. Drew is the most questionable guy out of the three players I mentioned. For one, he has had hamstring problems. It (kind of) surprises me in a way, because in the beginning of April, he was red hot, and nobody could stop him; since April 23rd, he has just dropped (on that day, he had a .350 BA, .437 OBP, and a .500 SLG). Manager Terry Francona says that he has hamstring problems, and he just needs to take it easy. I agree with him, but I just think he's trying to do too much for the Red Sox, since he has been given a lot of money, and he wants to try to prove that what they paid him is worth it.
The three guys that have been in slumps have proved (at least somewhat) that they are better than what they were in the first half. Will they have better second halves than first halves? What is causing them to do better? The lineup, possibly? Maybe Lugo is better off hitting in the bottom of the lineup. How much of an effect will they have in the pennant race? There are a lot of questions that could be answered about these guys, and hopefully, they'll all be positive.
Hope you liked the article.
