Around the Horn: LSU drops series to OU

By Hunt Palmer

In a weekend with some real positives, the negatives won out.

LSU’s offense is a major problem, and an injury to a piece of the starting rotation can’t be ignored. The Tigers were a pitch or a swing here or there from taking the series, but they never came up with the one they needed. Derek Curiel popped up with the bases loaded in the seventh on Friday. Jack Ruckert kicked the double play ball that would have escaped yet another jam on Saturday. Gavin Guidry issued a leadoff walk when you couldn’t have it. Every time LSU plugs a leak, another springs.

OFFENSIVE INEPTITUDE

LSU was 18-for-89 (.202) on the weekend. That’s going to lose almost every time. Because the overall hitting was so bad, it’s no surprise the situational stats were awful, too. LSU was 9-for-43 (.209) with runners on and 5-for-29 (.172) with runners in scoring position.

There’s no consistent offensive punch.

Last week, Vanderbilt aided LSU with a truckload of walks and wild pitches. That well dried up against Oklahoma after Cam Johnson left the mound on Thursday. LSU produced five runs over the final two games.

Jake Brown has been Superman for this LSU team. Oklahoma identified that and walked him six times over the weekend. LSU was 0-for-5 with a walk after Brown was gifted first base. Why pitch to him when the next guy can’t do damage?

Steven Milam had a 1-for-11 weekend. Derek Curiel was 2-for-11. Brown was 1-for-7. All four combined hits were singles.

The final two frames were a fitting close to the weekend. After Oklahoma took the lead in the eighth inning, LSU had 2-3-4 and 5-6-7 in the lineup. They went down in order on 16 pitches. Only Brown’s rope to left that was caught on the run at the wall was hit remotely hard.

DEFENSIVE DISASTER

That brings up the next point.

Oklahoma made nearly every play it had to make to win the weekend. Trey Gambill’s catch crashing into the wall in the eighth was one. But the Sooner defense turned pretty double plays in the eighth and ninth of Friday protecting a lead. They did it again in the fifth on Saturday when Brown ripped a ground ball to second.

LSU kicked the most crucial ground ball of the weekend and uncorked four wild pitches over the last two days. Free bases and extra outs are killers when your offense can’t get its feet on the ground.

Of course, when the offense created 31 runs last weekend at Vanderbilt, the pitching allowed 33. The pitching turned around and held Oklahoma to nine runs in three games, but the offense ground to a halt. Then the defense buckled.

Ruckert’s time as a defensive replacement is up. Jay Johnson mentioned converting William Patrick to the infield. He’s pushing every button he has available. That means swapping third basemen and second basemen depending on the batter’s handedness. Employing shifts. Subbing players in late in games.

All that means is that he doesn’t have four players capable of playing infield defense at an SEC level. That’s a massive problem, and I don’t see it as fixable. What’s stunning is that the issues are arising at the “easiest” infield positions, first and second base.

Milam is, by my eye, the best defensive shortstop in program history. He made two more stellar plays on Saturday including a backhand in the hole with runners on second and third and two out in the seventh. He has made five errors in 93 games the last two seasons.

The other three positions are in flux and unreliable.

PITCHING PROGRESS

The silver lining is the pitching.

What Casan Evans did on Thursday was potentially season-altering. Starting pitching can mask a lot of deficiencies. It didn’t this weekend, but it can. Evans looked every part the ace in the opener. It was his best outing as a Tiger. He struck out 15 and walked just one, his last hitter. His fastball command was fantastic, and that set up the breaking pitches and devastating changeup.

That version of Evans is an SEC ace.

Tiger pitching struck out 41 hitters over the weekend. The staff leads the league in whiffs. That makes the defensive problems look worse because no defense is being asked to do less than LSU’s and Milam’s play at the toughest position which is the best in the country. Still, the defense is awful.

Evans, Schmidt, Guidry and Sheerin are the four most impact arms with Moore down for a few weeks. Those four combined to work 16.2 innings and allowed three earned runs on 11 hits. They walked nine and struck out 30.

That’s good enough to win a lot of weekends, but they’re going to need some help.

SEASON STATUS

LSU has dropped three weekends in a row. There is still a ton of time left, but we’ve left the “slump” stage and entered the “flaws” stage.

This team is short an infield defender and doesn’t create enough offense. The first two weeks are now the outlier, and Milwaukee is 4-17 on the season. That’s who LSU scored 41 runs on over the first three games. Northern Kentucky scored 33 on them last weekend.

I still believe in the pitching. That version of Evans and Schmidt can win some weekends, and the best two bullpen arms are good. I also think Texas, Arkansas and Auburn are among the SEC’s best teams, and LSU doesn’t play that trio. That’s a break.

This is going to come down to how much the offense progresses. If it doesn’t, LSU is going to lose most weekends. If it does, this group can make a push.

It’s not an exaggeration to suggest LSU was one play away from winning both Friday and Saturday. A Curiel hit on Friday and a Ruckert double play starter on Saturday sweep the weekend for the Tigers. Instead, they lost both games.

Close doesn’t count, though.