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We were terrible in April, just terrible. The 2-week injury to Armstead was extended to 3 weeks and we were lost without our lead-off man.
If you just look at the fact that we led the AL in runs, you would ask how. But we were 11th in AVG and 13th in OBP. What saved us is we bashed the ball all over, we lead the majors in home runs. Our pitching has been decent, 6th in ERA, but we were next to last in runs allowed because, just like last year, we couldn't catch the ball in April. Most unearned runs allowed, 3rd most errors.
Armstead made it back for the last 2 games of the month. In his first game back, after the Angels were shut out the day before, he led off with a double, which was followed by a single and then back-to-back-to-back HR's by Lynn, Smith and Howell. We put 5 runs up right away before we made an out. He had a 2nd double and triple that game and hit a home run the last game of month.
Free agent signing Jeff Burroughs won AL Player of the Month, the real bright spot of the team. .351/.412/.676 with 7 hr and 20 RBI paid off for us right away.
But just 10-12 in April, 4 games back. We will catch the ball better, we will get on base more, I think we will be OK
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