Red Sox Report: Youkilis Flying Under The Radar?
Monday, July 25, 2011
Adrian Gonzalez leads the league in batting average and RBI. David Ortiz looks like he has turned back the clock to 2004 and lead the team in homeruns. Jacoby Ellsbury is having an amazing season and Dustin Pedroia has a career-high 21-game hitting streak. If you're a Red Sox fan, it's all good.
But I can't help but feel that one of the more underappreciated players on this team continues to be Kevin Youkilis. Sunday, Youkilis belted his 14th homerun of the season in Boston's 12-8 win over Seattle. He also upped his RBI total to 72 which is 4th best in the American League. Youk also had a great weekend defensively at third base where he willingly went after the organization acquired Adrian Gonzalez this past offseason.
Some may not like the funky way he holds the bat with his hands apart before each pitch or the fact that he has a tendency to whine after every and all called strike that he doesn't like. But that stuff is nothing. What is something is Youkilis' performance for this team year in and year out. Like Pedroia, he is a Dirt Dog in every sense of the words. He makes opposing pitchers work hard with great at-bats each time up and has a refuse-to-lose mentality.
He deserves our praise.
Other Notes:
-Tim Wakefield won his 199th game and struck out his 2,000th batter as a member of the red Sox in Sunday's win over the M's. Only Roger Clemens (2,590) struck out more batters while pitching for the Red Sox.
-The Mariners set a new franchise record for futility losing their 15th consecutive game.
-Pedroia's hit streak (now 21 games) continues to add to his career-high.
-Marco Scutaro was the only hitter in Boston's starting line-up who didn't score a run or drive one in during Sunday's game.
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