"LOB" Me an Answer

I left the Dodgers/Padres box score on my home laptop screen Friday night before going to bed. So, my wife gets up to use the computer the next morning to check her e-mail and find out who's dating who in Hollywood and comes across my idle screen. Her question: "what does LOB mean?" She actually pronounced it "lob", like lobbing a pass. Anyway, it took me a second to figure out what she was talking about until I put two-and-two together and realized she meant "L-O-B", as in "left on base."

I bring the story up because it's the story so far in Pittsburgh for the Reds. 14 hits Saturday and only 3 runs. The kind of stuff that will drive a baseball team mad.

The biggest culprit is Edwin Encarnacion. He left 7 runners on base Friday night and three more Saturday. Dusty has his hands full with the Reds' third basemen. He has two of the team's biggest hits so far this season, but not much else. He's hitting below the Mendoza line and committed his third and fourth errors of the young season on Saturday.

If you're Dusty, what do you do? Do you let him play every day to work his way through it? Send him to Louisville to fix the problem like last year? When Alex Gonzalez is ready, do you move Keppinger to third? Play manager and send me what you think.

- Joe D.