The Sox can move the lineup around all they want, but at the end of the day, that hasn't changed the fact that they have started the season with a dismal .218 batting average with runners in scoring position, and have failed in executing situational hitting through the early part of this season.
"Right now, it's been worse than bad, so far," hitting coach Greg Walker described, when asked about the situational hitting. "We have guys that attempt to do it the right way and right now, if anything, mentally we're trying too hard at times. "We stress that you're going to fail at times, but just go up there with a plan and stick with it, and so far we've been terrible at it. So far, we've had some real high-profile misses that have really affected games, where we had a chance to put games away or at least change the momentum of games, and we just haven't gotten the job done."
For the second consecutive spring training, the Sox worked on situational hitting to the point of nausea. That's why Walker expected better results than what they've seen.
"You look for a couple things, as a hitting coach you look for guys trying to do too much, which over the years because our guys are so professional we've not had that problem," Walker said. "We've had guys try too hard. The other thing you worry about are guys hitting with fear. That's one thing we stressed this year -- don't hit with fear, don't fear failure. It's a process that you go up there with a plan and stick to it, and if you do then you're going to be successful your percentage of the time. And the more high-profile a situation is, the more fear creeps into it. We're trying to get that out, where we're going up there with a plan and trust yourself."
Walker stressed several times that he feels it will get better, and do so sooner than later, and he has been pulling players aside to discuss it with them. But as he has learned the last few seasons, he can only do so much.
"I've seen different reasons for misses, but you can only stress it so much, you can only work on it so much before it becomes a mental thing," Walker added. "Right now, I believe it's turned into a little mini-stretch where it's a mental problem."
RAYS 6, WHITE SOX 5: Bartolo Colon was cruising through the first five innings with relative ease, but after loading the bases and being pulled for left-handed reliever Matt Thornton, win No. 2 was nabbed from him by one swing of Ben Zobrist's pinch-hit grand slam.
Not that the Sox didn't have their chances. While Zobrist's grand slam was the obvious turning point, the Sox did have Rays starter -- and arguably one of their better pitchers -- James Shields in trouble in the third inning, and only came away with two runs. Not delivering in the clutch continues to catch up with them, as the series is now tied with two games left.
