NL Worst of the Night: Rickie Weeks Dons the Golden Sombrero in Houston

Highlighting a bad performance from the previous night in baseball might seem like a harsh way to start the morning. But look at it this way: If you had a rough night or bad day, here's someone who may have had it worse.

It's been a rough season so far for Rickie Weeks. The Milwaukee Brewers' All-Star second baseman batted leadoff for most of the season, but it's hard to justify keeping someone batting .159 at the top of the order.

So Brewers manager Ron Roenicke moved him down to... the second spot in the lineup. Still near the top of the order. But Roenicke told reporters he believes Weeks' struggles are a mental issue and he just needs to swing away. Why he needs to do so in the No. 2 spot wasn't really clarified. 

If there was any thought that Weeks might have busted out of his slump by hitting a home run off New York Mets reliever D.J. Carrasco Tuesday night, he doused those hopes with Wednesday's 0-for-4 performance against the Houston Astros. Even worse, Weeks struck out in all four at-bats, giving him the ol' Golden Sombrero.

Weeks struck out three times against Bud Norris, twice swinging and once looking. Showing how frustrating this game can be, Weeks came close to hitting a home run in the eighth inning against reliever Rhiner Cruz.

As the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Todd Rosiak wrote in his game blog, Weeks crushed the ball down the left-field line, but it sliced foul. Cruz then got him to swing and miss for his fourth strikeout of the night.

Weeks now leads the National League with 48 strikeouts (interestingly, the top three strikeout men in the NL are each second basemen). Adam Dunn has 57 to lead the majors, but at least he has 12 homers to show for those big swings. The 0-for-4 dropped Weeks' slash average to .154/.295/.300 for the season, to go with four home runs and seven RBI. 

If moving Weeks to the No. 2 spot in the lineup was supposed to somehow get his bat going, it hasn't worked. How much longer can the Brewers keep him near the top of the lineup? And should we take bets on when Weeks will break his career-high season total of 184 strikeouts?

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