(Photo Credit @LSUbaseball on X)
By Hunt Palmer
For the second consecutive series, LSU stared down adverse conditions and brought out the brooms.
The weather in Norman this weekend was awful. It wasn’t conducive to much offense at all, and it may have propped pitching up. The biggest story to me wasn’t LSU’s pitching emerging and dominating. It was the fact that LSU went on the road and won three games in the conference to get to 10-2 in league play.
Elite pitching numbers in frigid and windy conditions are great. They also doesn’t really translate to regional and super regional play in Baton Rouge. The three wins LSU scored at No. 10 Oklahoma make that play far more likely.
Considering literally every trip LSU has made to Omaha in the super regional era has gone through Baton Rouge, I’d say that development is significant.
Enough about the postseason, what about the weekend?
NOTHING EARNED
LSU did not allow an earned run over the weekend. That has only happened twice in 32 years, and both came in 2013 when Aaron Nola was heading the rotation and the bats were made out of cardboard.
I don’t want to minimize that accomplishment. I do think context is important.
LSU only used its top five guys (Anderson, Eyanson, Evans, Shores, Cowan). I already know those guys are good. And I know they’re better when it’s 45 degrees with a 20 mph wind howling in. In that way, I don’t know that the weekend was some sort of “breakthrough”.
Eyanson and Shores each walked four. You’d like to see that number come down.
When LSU had to make pitches, they did. Oklahoma finished the weekend 3-for-26 (.115) with runners in scoring position, and one of those hits came through the left side on Saturday when Derek Curiel was so shallow that the runner from second couldn’t come home.
If Eyanson and Shores can mimic their stat lines from this weekend, LSU will be in business. Eyanson got two outs in the sixth. Shores got through five. That is going to be enough to get the ball to the two stoppers on the back end. Anderson can’t be counted on or nine innings every week, but under most circumstances Eyanson and Shores combining for 32 outs will be enough to put LSU’s staff in a good position.
LUIS LASERS
When it became obvious Luis Hernandez was going to be the primary catcher, I ramped down my expectations of him offensively. Catching really takes it out of you. Factor that in with the jump from the Missouri Valley to the SEC, I figured Hernandez would be a .265ish hitter with eight homers or so.
That looked to be prophetic after a month. It doesn’t now. He’s scolding hot.
Six of his last 10 games have been multi-hit games. In the last five league games he’s 10-for-20 with three doubles and two homers. In 12 SEC games, he’s hitting .340 with four homers and just eight strikeouts. Among the six players who have started all 12 SEC games, only Steven Milam has struck out less.
Also, Oklahoma entered the weekend leading the SEC by a wide margin in stolen bases. They didn’t swipe a single bag this weekend. Yes, Hernandez was credited with a passed ball that plated a run on Saturday. So, it wasn’t perfect. But the Indiana State transfer has been a huge key to LSU’s success this year.
When LSU took Hernandez, the staff felt good about the bat translating and felt like he could probably be the second catcher with hopes he’d develop into better than that. Josh Jordan has put in a ton of work with Hernandez, and it’s paying off in a big way.
CLOSER COMBO
I’m not breaking any news here telling you that Zac Cowan and Casan Evans have been awesome. Their SEC-only statistics are sensational, though.
They’ve combined to throw 28 innings against SEC opponents. They’ve given up two earned runs on 16 hits. They’ve struck out 41 and walked eight. Most impressively, they’ve combined to allow one extra base hit in those 28 innings.
For now, sending those guys out for 40 to 70 pitches works great. It’s the best way for LSU to win these games and series. It’s not a model you want to lean on in Omaha, but that’s a bridge LSU can cross when it gets there.
THINKING ‘13
LSU’s 2013 team will get lost in the history books. Those Tigers didn’t win a game in Omaha much less win a national championship. Still, it’s one of the best teams in school history.
That team got to Omaha at 57-9 before bowing out in two games.
LSU is close to matching that team’s absurd start. Those Tigers were 33-3 after 36 games. LSU is currently 30-3. If the Tigers can win in Thibodaux on Tuesday and take the first two games at Auburn, they’ll match the 33-3 start as well as the 12-2 SEC mark Katz, Rhymes, Bregman and Nola posted.
KADE’S COUNT
I’m not an orthopedic doctor. I’m not a pitching coach. I’m not a head coach. I’m not a pitcher.
I am paid to analyze the team. I was surprised when Kade Anderson came back out for the eighth on Thursday. I was stunned when he came out for the ninth.
Anderson finished with 135 pitches in the game. My opinion is that 135 is a bit much.
There are a lot of factors that go into the decision. Anderson hadn’t drastically dropped on the radar gun. He wasn’t 95 mph anymore, but he was still pumping it in there at 92 mph. He retired the final 12 he faced, so the innings weren’t laborious. He gets an extra day of rest this week.
All of that would indicate the decision didn’t carry much risk.
The flip side is that Anderson entered the game with exactly the same amount of innings pitched as he threw last year, 38.1. That means every out the rest of the way is going to increase his largest collegiate workload ever. He’s two years removed from Tommy John Surgery, and it was in the 40s on Thursday night.
Sometimes pitchers extend a little bit beyond a typical pitch count on a balmy night in June. Chilly, early April feels a little bit different.
To be clear, I don’t feel the decision to throw Anderson all nine on Thursday was reckless or egregious. I just felt like it was a little bit much.
We’ll see how the Tiger ace responds in the coming weeks. The likelihood is that he recovers well and moves forward with his outstanding sophomore season. I just probably would have gone to the bullpen after 115 pitches.
Overall, LSU is in phenomenal position now as the halfway point in SEC play approaches. There are still daunting weekends against Arkansas and Tennessee to come, but South Carolina also appears on the schedule, and the Gamecocks are not good at all.
Questions still remain about the bullpen depth. Those questions ring true for most teams in America, but LSU’s aspirations dictate that a couple of arms that weren’t used this weekend will need to step forward in the coming weeks.
The offense is elite, and the back end of the bullpen is dominating. The Tigers are among the best teams in the country.
That was evident this weekend as No. 10 Oklahoma felt outmatched.
