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Slowly but surely the Giants offense is beginning to take shape. Following a ninth-inning comeback in Tuesday night’s contest against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the bats showed some late fight, falling just inches short of blowing the Dodgers’ four-run lead in the ninth.
Up and down the lineup, the Giants are starting to see more production out of their starters, with the exception of one key hitter. Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow joined Murph & Mac Wednesday morning to discuss Buster Posey’s slow start to the season, and why he’s concerned over the face of the franchise and his lack of production.
“It’s all about bat speed and bat strength”, Krukow said. “If you go back and analyze all of his at-bats since the start of the season, I’ll bet less than a quarter of them have had balance and strength and drive. A lot of the times he’s been off balance, he’s just been sort of waiving through the strike zone.”
Through six games, Posey is batting .167/.250/.222 with three hits in 18 at-bats and zero RBIs. Recovering from offseason hip surgery, it was expected that Posey may need some time to re-adjust and get his timing down.
“He had a good at-bat where he hit a base hit up the middle last night, that was well balanced. He hit one the night before where he hit one to the wall, and he hit that ball well. But he’s not right, he’s still looking for his swing and looking for his balance.”
Posey has been batting cleanup each of the past three games he’s started. The four-hole hitter is the one who is supposed to be driving in runs, and Posey has yet to do that.
“They need him, if he’s going to be hitting in that four spot, he needs to start contributing with RBIs, I don’t think he has any yet. That is something that they need to get some productivity out of that spot in the lineup. If he’s going to stay there, he’s going to have to come up with some big hits or move down in the lineup.”
Without Posey, this Giants offense cannot function the way Bruce Bochy and Farhan Zaidi hope it can. The former MVP is the key bat in the Giants lineup, and if he’s unable to get things going quickly, we could see some big changes to the Giants’ middle of the order.
Listen to Krukow’s full interview here: