Jody Gerut puts team before himself...

[Alex]

Jody Gerut's 17 game hitting streak ended in a rather odd way. Jody walked the first four times up. Hitting streaks cannot end if a batter does any of the following in all of their at bats; walk, sacrifice bunt (but not a sac fly), or get hit by a pitch.

I believe that Lou Pinella may have ordered his pitchers to deliberately pitch around Jody. The theory being that a hitter on a hitting streak will swing at anything close because if they walk they are jeopardizing their hitting streak.

Jody didn't fall for Pinella's plan and instead walked the first four times up. So when Jody came up in the bottom of the eighth inning for his fifth at bat, one kind of hoped that Mr. Wedge would have pinch hit for Jody. Afterall, the Indians were up 8-0 and it would have basically meant that Jody had only one real chance to extend his hitting streak. As it was, the pitcher got two quick strikes and after Jody took one pitch, he swung and missed for strike three. [img]frown.gif[/img]

I'd rather Jody walk four times every time versus getting one hit in four at bats. It would have behooved Wedge to help Jody preserve his batting streak because if managers like Lou Pinella want to try and ruin a hitters hitting streak by throwing them junk, it can backfire, especially if the hitter is a non-selfish player such as Jody Gerut. Jody was always on the basepaths all day long and he scored at least one run because Jody took the walk every time rather than try and go after a bad pitch.

Jody's hitting streak was a secret weapon, but Wedge didn't see the hitting streak as a secret weapon, even though it was. Perhaps the fallout from Omar taking himself out of a lopsided loss so that he could get his 2,000th hit in a more meaningful game was on Wedge's mind, but if it was, that would have been a mistake.

Jody played unselfishly in the game, and it would have been a reciprocal move by Wedge to take Jody out in the eigth inning so the streak could live on.

I'll take four walks for Jody any day, and if it takes a hitting streak to create such a scenario, than the hitting streak should have been preserved. Heck, we see these guys next weekend and another four walks for Jody would have been fine by me.

[The RotoTribe]

If Gerut had walked three times and been lifted, wouldn't that end the streak? I thought he'd have to get a hit in order to keep the streak going-even with 3 walks.

Also, what happens to a hitting streak if a player comes in for one inning as a defensive replacement and does not bat?