marquis ortiz
12-13, 4.13 9-10, 4.98
in the same span of time, ray king has faced 32 batters, 24 of them with the cards either ahead or tied . . . . and has collected three blown saves and a loss for his efforts. he held one tie for 2/3 of an inning and one two-run lead for 1/3 of an inning; that's the sum of his contributions.
flores hasn't fared much better; he pitched lousy both times he was given a lead to protect, retiring just one of four batters over the two appearances. but with more opportunities, maybe he'd sharpen his game? particularly w respect to retiring left-handed hitters, he seems a better option than king --- indeed he could hardly be worse. their 2005 numbers v lh hitters:
batters faced |
outs | hits | hr | w/hbp | so | avg | obp | slg | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
flores | 79 | 58 | 13 | 2 | 8 | 23 | .183 | .263 | .352 |
king | 92 | 64 | 20 | 2 | 8 | 16 | .238 | .301 | .357 |
i am no more eager than you to see the cards' fate resting on a flores-v-giles confrontation, or flores-v-carlos delgado. but we've all seen enough of king; at some point in the playoffs he is going to have an outing like he did last night, and it's going to cost us a lead --- maybe a game, maybe a series. he's had ample opportunity to get it together in the last four weeks --- 13 appearances in 24 games --- and it ain't happening. tony and dunc need another option, and they have 10 games left to find out whether flores is it.