MLB Playoffs 2013: Players Who Must Step Up for Their Teams to Advance

Through two or three games in the 2013 Division Series of the MLB Playoffs—depending on the matchup—several regular-season studs have failed to live up to the standard that they had set.

Baseball may be a team sport, but without those individuals’ bats, certain clubs will struggle to advance to the LCS. Here is a quartet of hitters who must return to their regular season form.

3. 3B Josh Donaldson and SS Jed Lowrie, Oakland Athletics

Little other offensively than Stephen Vogt’s ninth-inning heroics on Saturday has prevented Oakland from falling in a 0-2 ALDS hole to the Detroit Tigers. 

While the Athletics sit safe at 1-1, the bats that carried them in the regular season must start connecting for them to sneak past Detroit. Josh Donaldson led the team in batting average hitting .301 and Jed Lowrie finished second with .290 through September. They combined for 39 home runs and 168 RBI in the regular season, but have only one hit through two playoff games.

2. CF Austin Jackson, Detroit Tigers

Detroit’s bats must be sick to their stomachs. Justin Verlander shut out Oakland for seven innings, but they couldn’t give him any run support. Austin Jackson isn’t the only Tigers hitter who’s struggled thus far in the ALDS, but no one has struggled more.

His .337 on-base percentage in the regular season is a distant memory. He’s not only recorded just one hit in his first eight at-bats, but he’s struck out a team-high five times. Jackson’s cold hitting is a major reason why Detroit doesn’t have a 2-0 series lead.

1. OF Wil Myers, Tampa Bay Rays

Wil Myers isn’t just fielding poorly.

He hasn’t been able to make up for his Game 1 fielding gaffe behind the plate, batting .077 through Tampa Bay’s first three playoff games; he hit .293 in the regular season. The only Ray to hit more efficiently was James Loney.

Down 0-2 to a Boston Red Sox club that’s racked up 19 runs in just two games, Tampa Bay is desperate for Myers’ offense.

David Daniels is a breaking news writer at Bleacher Report and news editor of Wade-O Radio. 

Follow @TheRealDDaniels