Seven-day (and counting) offensive riot

April 22nd, 2008 at 11:48am Gareth Sleger

The Cubs offense is simply scorching since Alfonso Soriano’s injury: 59 runs in seven games (6-1).

The week-long fire surge—which positioned the Cubs into first place—came everywhere from the typical (Derrek Lee 8 RBI, 3 HR, .379 BA; Aramis Ramirez 7 RBI, 2 HR .375 BA; Mark DeRosa 9 hits, 8 RBI .391 BA) to the atypical (Ronny Cedeno’s 5 RBI and 4 runs in last three games; Felix Pie’s 3-run HR on Monday; Eric Patterson’s game-winning RBI on Friday).

And that’s not even mentioning Ryan Theriot, who had 13 hits, 9 runs and .481 BA without even playing on Monday.

The Cubs now have five players in the National League’s top-25 batting average and seven in the NL’s top-20 OBP. In MLB, the Cubs rank second in RBI (108), second in runs (118), second in OBP (.364), third in hits (193), fifth in BA (.280) and fifth in extra base hits (67).

Now, I don’t want to be one of those guys who asks “Who needs Soriano?”, because the Cubs do need him. When ’Fons’ went down injured last August and missed 19 games, he came back in September to hit .320 with 14 home runs.

Entry Filed under: Alfonso Soriano, Offensive riot