Game 55: Luna cleans up
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Game 55: Luna cleans up
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
We've reached the point in this strange Phillies season where Hector Luna bats cleanup.
Charlie Manuel is using his 46th different batting order in the team's 55th game. With a day game after an evening game, Carlos Ruiz sits. That necessitated a new No. 4 hitter. The 32-year-old Luna has never hit there in his 320 major-league games.
The full lineup against Carlos Zambrano:
1. Jimmy Rollins 6
2. Juan Pierre 7
3. Hunter Pence 9
4. Hector Luna 3
5. Shane Victorino 8
6. Placido Polanco 5
7. Freddy Galvis 4
8. Brian Schneider 2
9. Joe Blanton 1
The Marlins will counter with this against a scuffling Joe Blanton:
1. Jose Reyes 6
2. Omar Infante 4
3. Hanley Ramirez 5
4. Giancarlo Stanton 9
5. Greg Dobbs 7
6. Logan Morrison 3
7. John Buck 2
8. Chris Coghlan 8
9. Carlos Zambrano 1
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
Come join my fan club The LUNAtics out in right field today. There are two of us. Every time he comes up to bat we do a crazy dance and then punch an unsuspecting person in the face.— guyguy4- What does Juan Pierre have to do to get listed as a MLB batting average leader list???? Juan Pierre has 149 ABs and is hitting .329!!!!!!!!! AJ Ellis has 140 ABs, hit .314 and is listed #13, Bryan LaHar is #16 at .312 with 150 ABS, #21 is Dexter Fowler batting .297 with 138 ABs. Pierre has NEVER BEEN LISTED AT ANY TIME THIS YEAR even though his ABs have exceeded several others listed, once he had more than Carlos Ruiz yet Carlos was listed and he was not. Has he been forgotten by MLB??? It's time for Philly fans to get on his bandwagon and make sure he gets the respect he deserves!!!!
— bffly - I'm afraid that Charlie is burying John Mayberry. I don't he even got half the opportunity to win the job that Ben Francisco got last year. with all of the talk about Mayberry being the new "Jayson Werth", Charlie, instead of letting Mayberry work his way out of his slow start, panicked because they were in last place, and stuck Pierre in left field instead, and has Luna playing first base, alternating with Wiggs. I hope John has the stones to ask for a trade, he has been treated unfairly, and the Phillies will regret it.— laser5
- another cr$p game from a cr%%p team -- what garbage collected by clueless rube for only $177 mil./yr— warbiscuit
- bffly. Nothing mysterious about it. A player needs to average 3.1 plate appearances per team's scheduled game to qualify for the batting title. Some of those guys on other teams walk once in a while. Juan, fitting in with his teammates and embodying what is apparently the Manuel/Gross approach to hitting, never does. So even though he has more at bats than some guys who qualify, he doesn't have more plate appearances.— jtj10
- This team has sunk to Hector Luna hitting clean up.— Ssteve115
- I went to the game today and when I saw Luna's name as the cleanup hitter on the starting lineup display at the stadium, it was like a punch to the gut.— AvoidSundanceVacations
