re: Hitting with RISP

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They have a 12-8 their last 20 games including dropping a series at home to MSU and losing a mid-week game to Nichols. That’s the reality.

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And if the decision making in every one of those games had been designed to maximize the chances of winning the game at hand, I would be more concerned. That’s not to say there aren’t weaknesses for this team or that they aren’t capable of losing games they shouldn’t, but it does mean they are better than that record would suggest. Even with the hitters driving in runs less proficiently than they did earlier in the year, they were in a position to win several of the games they lost if they had been all in. They lost to Nicholls by one run without Morgan and White and with the help of several crazy defensive plays by Nicholls. They lost Game 3 to Miss St by one run because Johnson got too cute with a 9-run lead and experimented too much, especially bringing in Little and letting him stay in long enough to give up 4 runs. They lost by one run to A&M with Floyd on a pitch count, White “resting”, two freshmen in the lineup who haven’t hit in a month and bringing in Dutton in a high leverage situation as a postseason audition. They lost by one to Arkansas with Skenes on a pitch count and as a result of a fluke catcher’s interference. If Johnson had been playing all out to wins those games, their record in the last 20 is 16-4 or 15-5.

And that’s just the most obvious one run games. In Game 2 against Miss St, Johnson left Hurd in long enough to surrender 5 runs trying to get him right (which looks like it may have paid dividends.) In Game 3 against Georgia, he tried to stretch Coleman out and continued his attempts to rehabilitate Dutton and Little leading to 4 runs surrendered in a game that wound up 9-5. Even Game 2 against Auburn, Johnson wasted Guidry on a two batter outing forcing him to dig deeper into the bullpen to bring out Collins and Dutton who gave up 3 runs in an 8-6 loss. All that’s to say that with the right bounces and different decision making priorities, they could have been even better than 16-4 over the last 20. That’s certainly a stretch since there were other games where the bounces did go their way to offset.

In the end, I don’t necessarily agree with Johnson’s focus on postseason. He almost certainly cost LSU the SEC title and a chance at the tournament title as well. While Omaha is the bigger prize, I think he could have still prepared the team for that goal without sacrificing so much in the here and now. Still, I expect his focus to change now that postseason has arrived and with it decisions to win each individual game. That’s why I’m not so concerned with the 12-8.

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It was a problem in the Auburn and Miss State series.

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the Miss State series where we run rules them and lost with 13 runs?

Facts don't care about your fricking feelings bitch...

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Lsu has hit just fine this year with risp.

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You’re right but if you’re logical and rational you can’t melt as easily as the retards on this site.