By Hunt Palmer
As LSU packed its bags amid a cloud of bubbles Sunday afternoon, plenty of missed opportunities likely danced in their heads.
Two fly balls to centerfield could have been caught to flip the first game. A couple of pitches could have turned game three. The series was that close from start to finish. No one threw a pitch with a three-run lead.
The truth that emerges from all of it is that LSU is not playing well enough offensively.
LSU scored seven runs over the weekend, and that’s simply not enough production. Jay Johnson has been quick to tip his cap to some outstanding pitching over the course of SEC play, and I tend to agree with him on a lot of that. I can’t get there on this Monday.
LSU scored seven runs this weekend against a pitching staff that won’t put a single pitcher on the all-conference teams and won’t have a pitcher selected in the first round of the MLB Draft in July.
Elon scored 14 on Texas A&M in a weekend. Kentucky scored 31. South Carolina scored 19. Alabama scored 14. LSU joined Cal Poly as teams to score seven, the fewest this season.
Cal Poly is not the company you’d like to keep.
You can point to lineup shakeups. I don’t like Jared Jones in the leadoff spot because it guarantees him an at bat with the bases empty every game. Outside of that, I’m not overly concerned with the order.
The fact is that six LSU hitters started all three games over the weekend—Jared Jones, Derek Curiel, Daniel Dickinson, Stevan Milam, Michael Braswell and Chris Stanfield. Those six–the backbone of the LSU lineup–went 12-for-64 (.188) and produced a single multi-hit game.
It would be one thing if LSU was stranding a lot of runners or scolding the ball right at people. That’s not happening.
The Tigers had four at bats with runners in scoring position on Sunday and five in game one. LSU managed to score in just four of 27 innings.
The offense has to play better.
THAT’LL DO, ‘SONS
Beyond the offensive ineptitude, the starting pitching is now elite.
Four SEC pitchers have 100-plus strikeouts. Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson are in that club with Liam Doyle and Kyson Witherspoon. The two Tiger hurlers are second and third in the league in whiffs, and they’ll give LSU a chance every weekend.
At Texas A&M, they combined to throw 15 innings of two run baseball. They struck out 26 and walked four surrendering just six hits. If you’re going to struggle on offense, you might as well have a pair of front-line starters to hold the rope.
And it is very clearly a pair. Anderson gets more of the headlines and starts on Fridays, but through eight weeks of SEC play, Eyanson’s numbers are better. He’s got a lower ERA (3.16 to 3.57), a lower opponent batting average (.213 to .218) and has only allowed three home runs to Anderson’s 12.
They’ll likely pitch the first two games a of a regional. That bodes well. Same goes for a Super and the first two in Omaha.
If LSU doesn’t swing the bats better, none of that will matter, and half of it won’t even happen. But it’s encouraging.
COWAN CONCERN
Zac Cowan yielded the go ahead runs in both LSU losses over the weekend. He’d given up three earned runs in SEC play all season before allowing four in College Station.
Is that cause for concern?
No.
At least, not for me. The leadoff triple Benjamin Royo hit in game one was a breaking ball on or just off the outside corner. Though it was probably a little bit up, it wasn’t a bad pitch at all. Royo put a good swing on it, and even though he didn’t hit it hard, it found grass just inside the right field line.
Cowan got really, really weak contact from Wyatt Henseler on Sunday, but the blooper found more grass. Sorrell’s homer was simply a phenomenal swing from a phenomenal player. Jace Laviolette and Gavin Grahovac have garnered a ton of attention in College Station the last two years. Sorrell is just as good and will get his due next year when draft time rolls around.
The fastball Cowan threw him was down and away. He just nuked it the other way. With a one-run lead and two men on, you have to throw the ball over the plate. Walking Sorrell to put the go-ahead runner in scoring position is a no-no. A great player beat you. It happens.
Cowan will be fine. It was the first home run he’d allowed in league play. Going 10 weeks without allowing a longball in this league is almost impossible.
STAFF STRENGTH
LSU actually held the Aggies stars in check for nearly the entire weekend. Laviolette, Henseler and Sorrell were 3-for-31 with 16 strikeouts before the eighth on Sunday. They went 3-for-3 in that inning.
More than just the stars, LSU held Texas A&M down all weekend, really. For three games, A&M was 18-for-96 (.188).
At a certain point this season, I’d suggest more fans were concerned with the pitching staff than the offense. The staff appears to be settling in. Tennessee only hit one home run in Baton Rouge last week. A&M scored a total of 10 runs in three games.
I thought the relievers that followed Casan Evans and preceded Cowan on Sunday all did their jobs in massive moments. Mavrick Rizy was exceptional in the first game, throwing 1.2 innings of hitless ball with four strikeouts. He was at 98 mph and threw 15 of 22 pitches for strikes.
LOOK AROUND
Sunday will leave a sour taste for five days. That’s how those go. And there’s no question that offensively LSU has to break out a little bit.
But a dose of perspective can sometimes help.
LSU is not the only team with some issues in the recent past.
Texas was annihilated in Fayetteville over the weekend and is without its ace for the rest of the year. As good as Arkansas might feel after dispatching the Longhorns, they’d lost three weekends in a row leading up to that one.
Tennessee has lost three series in a row and four of five. Prior to visiting Missouri, Georgia had been swept in its last two road series. Vanderbilt hasn’t won two series in a row in SEC play this year.
This 30-game grind gets to everyone at some point.
The reward for SEC teams is that none of the other teams show up in your regional. LSU has six league games left to make sure the road to Omaha goes through The Box.
My rough math shows that four wins in the next six is probably enough. There are plenty of variables that can shift that over three weeks, but we’ll cover that as it unfolds.
For now, it’s about getting by Grambling on Tuesday and giving the ball to Anderson Friday night as the Hogs invade Baton Rouge.
