Hits, Hits, Hits and More Hits

Let us start with how great a day it was yesterday. If you notice the ball is actually out of David Rollins' hand and on its way to the plate in this picture.

Now onto to the Lugnuts offense which has WOKEN UP.

Here are some of the eye-popping offensive stats from last week:

The Lugnuts scored 59 runs on 92 hits for a .371 (92-for-248) team batting average during their seven-game homestand in which they went 6-1.

As a team last week, Lansing walked more than they struck out (39 BB, 37 K).

Against Lake County, Lansing had a hit in 29 of their 33 offensive innings in the four-game set.

Check out these individual numbers from the homestand…

Jon Berti  9-for-26, 4 RBI, 5 runs, 3 stolen bases 

Markus Brisker 6-for-16 (.375) 3 RBI 

Andy Burns  10-23, 4 RBI, 7 runs, 5 extra-base hits 

Chris Hawkins 11-for-26, 5 RBI, 6 runs 

K.C. Hobson 10-for-23, 7 RBI, 7 runs, 8 BB, 5 extra-base hits 

Shane Opitz  10-for-17, 6 RBI, 5 runs, 5 extra-base hits 

Carlos Perez 12-for-26, 4 RBI, 9 runs, 4 extra-base hits, game-winning walk-off double on 5/23 vs. DAY

Kevin Pillar 12-for-30, 4 RBI, 2 extra-base hits

Also...

The Lugs have beaten Dayton ten times this season and are 12-0 in the last 12 meetings between the two squads going back to the playoffs last season.

The Cleveland Indians’ top rated prospect Fransciso Lindor, who is just 18 years old, is 3-for-29 against Lansing, but batting .319 against the rest of the league.

The defense struggled a bit last week; the Lugs committed 12 errors over the seven-game homestand.

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Jesse Hernandez is the Lugnuts hottest pitcher. He has matched his career-high of seven innings pitched in each of his last three starters allowing just three runs, 12 hits and three walks over those 21 innings.

Anthony DeSclafani and Noah Syndergaard’s line from their last two appearances during the homestand do not look very good, but do not be alarmed; It was really only one bad inning in each of those outing… Just a little rough patch.

By the way Syndergaard has not walked a batter in his last two outing spanning 7 2/3 innings.

Justin Nicolino looked great the last time out. That curveball is really coming along. It looks much tighter than it did earlier this season.

The bullpen has been good in the last 12 games -- 43 innings pitched, six earned runs for a 1.25 ERA.

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This road trip should be a good one because the Hot Rods and the Silver Hawks are both battling for the second place playoff berth behind the Lugnuts.

We are in Bowling Green now for a three-game series after a wonderful eight-hour red-eye bus trip. We pulled in at 6:00 a.m. central time this morning. One of the ways I passed the time was by watching “Cowboy vs Aliens.”  The movie title itself sounds terrible, but I really like it. Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford are both bossy cowboys that kill aliens. Again, it is not a sci-fi channel, made-for-TV type film, its good… I promise.

Finally, Jesse and Big Lug got into the hitting mood along with the team but instead of having a desire to hit balls with bats, they wanted to hit me with their fists the other day while we were on-air.