Dustin Pedroia is having a pretty good season -- 108 OPS+ and eight hoe runs, already more than halfway to last year's total of 15 -- but over the past couple weeks, he has found himself mired in a bit of a slump. In his past 12 games, Pedroia is just 8-for-49 (.163), with only two extra base hits (a pair of doubles), more strikeouts (7) than walks (6) and a laughably bad tOPS+ of 21.
It's baseball. Slumps happen. Like Johnny Bench said, "Slumps are like a soft bed. They're easy to get into and hard to get out of." But this particular slump is happening to Boston's second baseman, so we must wonder: is something wrong with that knee Pedroia injured sliding on May 15?
Pedroia says no, as only Pedroia can.
"There's nothing. There's nothing wrong with my knee," he said after going 0-for-5 Friday night. "I don't make excuses for my play. I play hard every day. I don't make excuses if I get injured or something. I go out there every day and try to hit a thousand. I'm tring to get a hit every time up. It's really not working out right now. I can guarantee you that I won't end the year hitting .260 or whatever the [expletive] I'm hitting now. I can guarantee you that. I don't guarantee a lot, but that's for damn sure.
"I'm just not getting any hits. That's it. I hit a couple of balls hard."
Pedroia then finished the questioning with assurance that he'd continue to work at it, and that shows involving lasers were soon to follow: "I'll definitely put the time in and make sure I have a great year, so, ‘Laser Show.' Relax again."