Bats Rack: Here We Come!!

The Louisville Bats will be way from home for the next ten days. If those ten days are anything like the ten game homestand that just ended, the Bats are in store for a great finish to this season. The Bats lost 3 of 4 to Scranton (Yankees) and then proceeded to win their next 6 games, including a four-game sweep of Syracuse (Mets) and a two game sweep of Columbus. They’ll take that six game winning streak into Columbus (Indians) today and tomorrow. If they manage to pull off a sweep of those games, the Bats will be in a tie for first place in the division with the Clippers. They trailed Columbus by 8.0 games on May 29, only to be 3.0 GB 7 days later.

Player of the Week

This is a very easy choice. I’m not trying to take credit for Yonder Alonso’s current 8-game hitting streak, but look at his numbers since my interview with him on May 28: .469/.563/.563 1 double, 1 triple, 1 HR, 9 RBI. That one HR was a 444 ft. bomb to the right field bleachers on Thursday night. 5 of the 8 games are multi-hit games. Alonso is getting much, much better in left field too. Earlier in the homestand he made a running catch, crashed into the wall and held on to the ball. I’m still waiting for the situation to arise when he has to throw to the plate; I haven’t gotten a chance to see his arm first hand, but he does have two assists this year. The Bats player of the week is definitely Yonder Alonso.

And now some other golden nuggets that I find interesting (and I hope you will too.):

–        Bats manager Rick Sweet won his 499^th game with Louisville yesterday. Sweet, in his seventh season as the Bats’ skipper is 499-417, and is the all-time winningest manager in Louisville franchise history.

–        The Bats are 5-2 against division rival Columbus—a team they were 7-14 against last season.

–        Zack Cozart is on a 9-game hitting streak, including a 4-5 performance Friday night. His average is up to .291 and he has an OBP of .332 and a SLG of .457.

–        The Bats are now a season high 10 games over .500. They are now 33-23. The Bats won their third straight division title last year and did not win their 33^rd game until June 22.

–        In 56 games this season, the Bats have hit 62 HR and 127 doubles. Both are tops in the league. They are 2^nd in RBI (266), 2^nd in RS (283), 1^st in AVG (.279), 2^nd in OBP (.361), and 1^st in SLG (.451).

Speaking of scary offensive numbers, look at the Bats line-up and their statistics for the season and please attempt to pick out a weak spot:

Obviously, Clevlen would probably be the weakest spot of all. But, remember, Dave Sappelt and his .341/.417/.588 4 HR, 11RBI, will be coming off the DL soon to replace Clevlen in CF.

If the Bats can keep up this offensive tear (and I see no reasoning as to why they can’t), there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll be looking at a fourth consecutive division championship.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @kevingeary10 and BRM @blogredmachine.