Despite Alfonso Soriano's two home runs, he could of helped the Cubs a lot more yesterday. Both of his home runs were solo home runs. How are the Cubs going to benefit from Soriano's homers if they are just solo home runs? The Cubs get the same amount of runs out of a groundout with a runner at third with zero or one out compared to a Soriano home run. It is not coincidental that Soriano is hitting solo home runs. Besides the fact he is guaranteed to bat with the bases empty at least one time per game, he is hitting behind two of the Cubs worst On-base players: Reed Johnson and the pitcher's spot. The chances of either of them getting on aren't as great as the chances or Ryan Theriot or Derrick Lee or Kosuke Fukudome or Geovany Soto. One of the reasons the Cubs lost yesterday was because Soriano got just two RBIs out of his two home runs. If he was batting lower in the lineup, he'd probably get four RBIs for his home runs.
Now I know exactly why Soriano is still batting leadoff. Lou Piniella keeps talking about all this "Soriano doesn't like batting with runners on base and he is very comfortable at leadoff" bullshit. Here's the thing: Not only has Soriano came through this season many times with runners in scoring position but he wouldn't have to hit as many home runs if he was batting 5th or so. Let's say Soriano is batting with Lee on third and Aramis Ramirez on second. If Soriano hits a single, that's two RBIs right there which is one more RBI than he gets with all his solo home runs. And of course the obvious thing: if he hits a home run in that situation, it's three RBIs. As you saw yesterday, the addition of a few more RBIs can be the difference between a win and a loss. Soriano did a lot of damage in yesterday's loss, but he could have done a lot more.
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