![]() That gives you hope.”Ĭraig hit a ridiculous. He was able to cover pretty much everything.”Īt his best, Craig always looked like a Red Sox-style hitter - looking to go the other way, able to turn on a pitch and pull it, willing to take a walk. “He was working gap to gap, driving the baseball. “He was able to drive the ball to all fields,” reliever Brandon Workman said. “He had great at-bats against Koji when nobody had good at-bats against Koji.” “I remember thinking that he was the only guy that ever got a hit off Koji all season,” Breslow said. He entered Game 3 as a pinch-hitter, his injured foot preventing him from playing defense - and he jumped on a first-pitch fastball from the seemingly untouchable Koji Uehara, pulling it into left field for a leadoff double.Ī night later, facing Uehara again, he launched another fastball to the fence in right field for what would have been a double if not for his bad foot. Louis reached the World Series that Craig was added back to his team’s roster.Ĭraig had hits in each of the first two games of the World Series in Boston. The foot injury sidelined Craig for almost all of September and most of October in 2013 - including the first two rounds of the postseason. He ripped an inside-the-park home run down the right-field line on Wednesday, a reminder of the all-fields power he features. He can be an asset again, however, if he hits like he was hitting when the Red Sox saw him in the World Series. 191 slugging percentage after he was traded to the Red Sox.Ĭombined with the $26.5 million left on the contract Craig signed with the Cardinals two years ago, the former All-Star looked more like an albatross than an asset. 346 slugging percentage in the first half with the Cardinals and then a miserable. 500 in almost 1,500 plate appearances to begin his major-league career hit. “To us, he was their best hitter,” Boston starter Clay Buchholz said.Ī year later, that same foot injury wrecked whatever Craig tried to do at the plate. ![]() ![]() He doubled and then, after an infield ground ball and a wayward throw, tripped over Will Middlebrooks near third base en route to scoring the winning run on an obstruction call in Game 3. 412 on-base percentage in 17 plate appearances in that World Series, playing one game at first base and three as the Cardinals’ designated hitter. Louis reliever Edward Mujica said.Įven fighting the same foot injury that would hamper him the following season, Craig hit. “David and Allen Craig were the best hitters in that World Series,” then-St. “A healthy Allen Craig is an impact middle-of-the-lineup bat.” Louis team with a good lineup, and he was arguably the most potent bat,” Red Sox reliever Craig Breslow said. “When you think about him being the premier run-producer on the premier team in the National League for two or three years straight - that was a good St. Less than 18 months have passed since that October, but the best hitter in the dugout across the field in that World Series has faded almost into oblivion, a forgotten star, a hitter many assume will be traded any day for lack of opportunity - Allen Craig. “We were trying to throw pitcher’s pitches, but he was such a great hitter that he was hitting all of them - offspeed, inside, outside.” “We weren’t supposed to throw him any strikes, but I guess everyone’s ego got the best of ourselves,” said Joe Kelly, who walked Ortiz once and got him to ground out once in his Game 3 start. Any pitch near the strike zone felt like it was asking for trouble. Louis pitchers to do whatever they could do avoid him. Ortiz had a monster October, hitting home runs in each of the first two games of the World Series and prompting St. Nobody has forgotten that David Ortiz was the best hitter on the World Series-winning Red Sox team two years ago.
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