Apparently, when Carl Crawford bats sixth, he can't make an out.
That's only sort of an exaggeration, as the Red Sox' left fielder was penciled into the sixth spot the past two days and went 8-for-9 with two doubles, a triple, a homer and five RBIs. In the process, he's raised his average from .212 heading into Wednesday to .244 heading into Friday.
Not bad for two days' work.
Terry Francona has Crawford in the sixth spot again on Friday night in Detroit, looking to catch lightning in a bottle. The question is, with Crawford as hot as he is right now, should he be hitting higher in the order?
He's hitting .333 in the month of May, helping to cancel out the .155 average in April. See how he's hitting at different spots in the lineup in the table below, from baseball-reference.com.
Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Batting 1st | 7 | 7 | 33 | 32 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .094 | .121 | .125 | .246 |
Batting 2nd | 4 | 4 | 16 | 15 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .200 | .250 | .200 | .450 |
Batting 3rd | 2 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .000 | .125 | .000 | .125 |
Batting 6th | 2 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .889 | .889 | 1.889 | 2.778 |
Batting 7th | 8 | 8 | 34 | 31 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | .290 | .333 | .419 | .753 |
Batting 8th | 25 | 25 | 103 | 99 | 15 | 24 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 20 | .242 | .272 | .343 | .615 |
There are known complications with moving Crawford up, such as shifting around Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Youkilis or David Ortiz. But if it's going to happen at some point, is now the time?
Should Carl Crawford Move Up in Red Sox' Batting Order?online surveys