Well, giving up 34 runs in 4 games was not the way I wanted to return to play. At least we are still only a game back. We have 2 more games in Philadelphia, and then 3 in Washington, before the week wraps up with 2 games in Pittsburgh.
7/9 @ Boston, W, 8-6
7/10 @ Boston, L, 4-7
7/11 @ Boston, L, 4-14
7/12 @ Philadelphia, W, 8-7
Top Performances
* Pete Layton: .500/.563/.847, 1 HR, 3 RBI
* Tom Bird: .429/.556/.571, 2 2B, 4 R, 4 RBI
* Bennie Griffith: .556/.556/.889, 1 HR, 3 R
* Bob Martin: .375/.400/.500, 1 2B, 1 3B, 6 R, 5 RBI
It does appear that the offense might be starting to pull its own weight.
Pete Layton has been everything I imagined and more. So far with Chicago Layton is hitting .440/.481/.707 with 5 HR and 14 RBI.
Cliff Moss has also been swinging the bat well this month--he is hitting .476/.538/.762. The only regulars who have been really struggling this month are
Paddy Smith (.140) and
Ron Rattigan (.237).
I'm a little torn with what to do about short stop.
Bill White ostensibly has the better bat that
Bob Barringer, but even so, White is still hitting below average (OPS+ of 88). And while White had shown a decent glove in the minors, he has struggled in the field this season. Barringer is a veteran with a very good glove. I'm thinking that if the rest of the lineup is hitting, we can afford to swap White with Barringer to help out the pitching staff. At any rate, Barringer will get the majority of the starts this week.
As has been the case for the past few weeks, the pitching staff as a whole did not have a good week. In fact, the trouble started in the All-Star Game when
Rabbit Day and
Al Miller combined to give up all 6 runs in the 6-4 loss to the CA. Day won his first start as a Chief, but Miller followed up his all-star appearance with his worst start of the season (6 IP, 9 H, 6 R).
