Church Rocks Washington

How Sweet It Is!!!

RYAN CHURCH boomed his second home run of the season Wednesday night at Shea Stadium in New York.

It came against his old team, the Washington Nationals, so presumably the General Manager of the Nats, Jim Bowden, was watching.

Bowden was the guy who kept complaining (not publicly for quotation, of course, that Church did not hit the long ball enough). So he traded him.

Wednesday’s long one came off Matt Chico, a lefthander. One of Bowden’s other charges was that Churchie did not hit lefties. Bowden’s team is now 4-11. Church is now batting .340, higher than any of the Nationals.

So there Mr. Bowden, if the Nats are ever going to fill that new stadium they will need a new GM.

It might also be noted that Churchie has been elevated by the Mets from the 6-hole to the 2-hole in the batting order. It’s a serious compliment to his batsmanship to stroll to the plate directly behind lead off man Jose Reyes and in front of all-star David Wright.

Marty Noble of MLB.com wrote about it this way----


NEW YORK -- To a degree, the Mets' batting order returned to normalcy Tuesday night when Jose Reyes returned to active duty. Having missed two games because of a mild strain of his left hamstring, Reyes ran in the outfield early in the afternoon, testing the muscle that forced him from the game Friday night and unnerved an entire organization.

He batted in his customary leadoff position, but manager Willie Randolph made the first significant -- if temporary -- revision of his batting order as the Mets prepared for the first game of their series against the Nationals. Ryan Church was inserted in the second slot in the order and became the third player to bat second in the team's first 12 games.


This time, the change was made for baseball reasons -- though Randolph identified none -- and not for reasons of injury. Luis Castillo, who batted second in the first eight games, was in the lineup, batting eighth. And Angel Pagan, who served in Castillo's stead as the No. 2 hitter three times, was back batting sixth.


Church was quite comfortable in his changed role, and not only because batting second, as opposed to sixth or seventh, was likely to afford him one more at-bat.


"I like getting started early," Church said. "You're in the game right away. And I wouldn't mind an extra [at-bat]."


Church had batted second in 18 games before Tuesday -- not once since July 2005 -- and produced well: a .460 on-base percentage and .625 slugging average in 40 at-bats/51 plate appearances.


Randolph said the changes were among the many he is likely to make over the course of the season, and explained no other motivation. But he acknowledged one advantage would be that if Reyes were to reach first base, Church would benefit not only from seeing more fastballs, but also because the right side of the infield would be open with the first baseman having to hold Reyes.


That scenario played out, though not as well as possible, in the first inning Tuesday. Reyes singled, and Church saw three pitches with a wide-open right side before Reyes attempted a steal -- he was thrown out, 1-3-6. Church then hit the fifth pitch of his at-bat for a single to center field, and then scored on David Wright's home run.