Game 153 Open Thread: September 21, 2005

marquis ortiz
12-13, 4.13 9-10, 4.98

in light of ray king's showing last night, let's go back to the LOOGYS for a second. in the last 30 days, randy flores has only pitched to 20 batters --- and he's faced only four guys with the cardinals either tied or holding the lead. three of those came on august 25, when he came in to protect a 5-2 lead vs pittsburgh; the other came on september 10, when he entered in the 6th inning with the cards ahead 4-1.

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.