(Photo by Southeastern Conference)
By Hunt Palmer
LSU’s offense away from home has been a problem all year.
That was certainly the case in Hoover this weekend. Were it not for a dropped fly ball in right field and an error on the A&M shortstop on Friday night, the Tigers would have potentially played 18 innings with two runs.
And the Tigers never saw an ace.
I can explain away a tough offensive weekend in Austin. That’s a big ballpark, and Texas pitches well.
It was frigid in Norman, and Kyson Witherspoon is tough to deal with in pleasant conditions. No big deal.
Veteran lefties got the better of LSU in College Station. Ok.
There may not have been much on the line in Hoover. I can live with two-and-out.
But all of that bundled together is impossible to dismiss. And I don’t have a good reason for it.
LSU is 30-5 at home and scores an average of 7.9 runs in SEC home games. In SEC road games, LSU averaged 4.5 runs per game.
Home Series Run Output: Missouri 29, Mississippi State 27, Alabama 19, Tennessee 21, Arkansas 22
Road Series Run Output: Texas 17, Oklahoma, 15, Auburn 8, Texas A&M 7, South Carolina 20.
Before facing South Carolina’s putrid staff to end the regular season, LSU’s best five offensive series were at home and worst four were on the road.
The next two weeks should be played in the friendly confines of The Box, so maybe this is an issue in the past, but it’s unsettling.
HAPLESS IN HOOVER
LSU was shut out for the first time all year on Saturday. The first seven hitters in the order combined to go hitless in 22 at bats with seven strikeouts.
Over two games, LSU got six hits and only had six at bats with a runner in scoring position. It was just a stagnant malaise that the Tigers never snapped out of.
LSU was 1-for-19 with two outs and only put the leadoff man on base four times. When you don’t get runners on base early in innings and don’t get clutch hits late in innings, you don’t score much.
The pitching is good enough to help LSU through some NCAA Tournament struggles at the plate. Sometimes Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson put on the Superman cape like they did at Oklahoma and Texas A&M. But you can’t ask for that too often.
PITCHING PROMISE
The season has been a months-long search for some bullpen consistency beyond Casan Evans and Zac Cowan. After Anderson and Eyanson handled A&M on Friday, it was up to the bullpen to carry the Tigers on the mound.
Saturday’s performance from Jaden Noot, Chase Shores and Jacob Mayers was awesome.
Ole Miss has a pretty potent lineup, and that trio held the Rebels to three hits while striking out 14.
Mayers is such an interesting case. His stuff is so salty. The fastball just explodes from that high arm slot. His slider is so sharp. Still, he’s the guy who led the country in walks issued back-to-back seasons. That’s impossible to ignore in high-leverage spots.
On Saturday, Mayers didn’t issue a single walk. He only got to a pair of three-ball counts and got strikeouts on both 3-2 pitches. That was fantastic to see. In a regional setting, Mayers can overwhelm a four seed with his stuff late in a Friday game. If he doesn’t walk guys, he’s a huge bullpen asset.
Noot continued his strong late-season surge. In his last nine innings, all against SEC lineups, he’s only allowed three earned runs with 13 strikeouts and two walks. Most importantly, that’s back-to-back four-inning outings from him. He’s showing some real length, and you absolutely have to have that from some guys in a postseason run.
Between Evans, Cowan, Shores and Noot, you have four bullpen arms capable of 75 to 90 pitches in a given game.
PAIR OF ACES
Jay Johnson’s decision to go to Eyanson out of the bullpen on Friday drew a lot of attention. He hadn’t done that all year. After the game, Johnson laid out the reasons he did it. He wanted to get Eyanson out there in case there was only one game for LSU in Hoover.
Maybe more importantly, now he can start either of them on full rest against the No. 4 seed in the regional.
We now know that Johnson is not going to completely pitch off the Friday regional game like some Paul Mainieri teams. He started Jordan Brown in 2008, Austin Ross in 2009 and Alden Cartwright in 2015. That was never a spot for Kevin Gausman, Anthony Ranaudo or Alex Lange.
Johnson is going to use his best guy/guys on Friday of a regional. Since this team has two, he now has options.
I loved the move. I called for it on air las week. It paid off. Both guys got work. LSU won the game. Now it’s on to the games that really count.
