The Expos won their first series on the road this season by taking advantage of the Stros’ feckless offense in winning Sunday’s matinee at the Juice Box against Roger Clemens, 5-2.
There will be much knashing of the teeth in the media over this latest Stros debacle, but it’s really not much of a surprise. Since May 11th, when the Stros had their best record after 32 games in club history (21-11), the moribund Expos actually have a better record than the Stros (Expos: 34-44/Stros: 34-45). That’s how sorry the Stros have been this season.
Clemens was solid again today, giving up only one earned run on eight hits over seven innings. But the Stros’ hitters continue to scruff away at the plate. Today, they were only able to manage six singles and Ensberg‘s solo tater against mediocre Expos pitching. The three Expos starters in this series had a combined negative 32 runs saved against average this season, meaning that they have given up 32 more runs than an average National Leage pitcher has this season. The Stros were only able to manage seven runs in three games off of those well below average pitchers. Ouch!
The Stros players’ runs created against average (“RCAA”) and runs saved against average (“RSAA” and RCAA explained here) have not changed much from last week, so I will hold off on publishing them again until next week. Suffice to say for now that the Stros continue to tread water.
Berkman continues to be one of the ten best hitters in baseball, while Beltran also is quite solid if his numbers with the Royals are included — his numbers with the Stros only are decent, but not as good as I hoped they would be. Bidg is starting to fade a bit, which is to be expected, and Bags has had a modest resurgance, although he is still only generating about half of the production this season than he did last season. Lamb is the only other Stro who is an above-average hitter this season. Every single other player is either below average or well below average, which means that the fact that the Stros’ are 10th among the 16 N.L. teams in hitting is not surprising.
The Stros pitchers’ RSAA is better (third in the N.L.), but that is somewhat deceptive. Miller has contributed a +11 RSAA, but is unlikely to pitch again this season. Clemens, Oswalt, and Lidge are all solid, but the remainder of the pitchers are either just above average or just below average, with the exception of Harville and Redding, who are pitching poorly and probably should be shipped to AAA to regain confidence.
The Stros’ power drain this season has been deep and pervasive. Bidg is the only Stros’ hitter who is hitting better this season than last season, although Berkman continues to hit at a very high level. As noted above, Bags is half the hitter he was last season, and last season was his fifth straight season of declining numbers. Ensberg has produced 32 fewer runs this season than last season, and Hidalgo‘s numbers were even worse than that before he left. Kent has gone from being a +13 RCAA last season to a 0 RCAA this season. Interestingly, Kent is an example of precisely an average National League hitter so far this season with his batting average/on base average/slugging percentage of .288/.342/.484.
The Stros get an off day tomorrow to think about all this, and then they begin a nine game road trip in New York on Tuesday against the Mets. At least Richard Hidalgo has cooled off so the Stros probably won’t have to deal with the humiliation of Hidalgo going nuclear on them. On the other hand, the way this season has gone, the Stros will probably ignite Hidalgo into one of his legendary hitting streaks.