Dustin Pedroia's Continued Regression Against Lefties

I was watching the Boston Red Sox-Los Angeles Dodgers game on Saturday afternoon and a move in the bottom of the seventh struck me by surprise. With two outs and a runner on first, Joe Torre pulled RHP Jeff Weaver and brought in LHP Hong-Chih Kuo to face Dustin Pedroia.

At the time, I thought man that is a puzzling move. Why remove the righty to bring in a lefty to face a right-handed batter? Even though David Ortiz is up after Pedroia, I still was surprised to see Kuo (I’ll talk about him in a second) come into the game.

But then I heard a stat and the move made perfect sense for Torre and the Dodgers. Coming into Saturday’s game, Pedroia was hitting .197 against left-handed pitching. Of course Pedroia got a hit off Kuo, but bringing in Kuo was the right move by Torre.

Not only has Pedroia struggled against lefties this year, but he has been on a steady decline versus left-handed pitching since his rookie year. Take a look at Pedroia’s batting average against lefties over his first four seasons in the majors.

Why Pedroia’s batting average versus lefties has declined each of the last four years is beyond me. It could be one of those weird things in baseball where he sees the ball better coming out of a righties hand as opposed to lefties. It could also be that he doesn’t face lefties all to often (only 28 percent of his plate appearances lifetime have come against lefties), so when he does see one, he is not used to it.

Whatever the reason for Pedroia’s decline, the reality is that he just doesn’t hit lefties well. So the next time you see a manager pull a righty to bring in a lefty to face Pedroia, don’t be surprised like I was on Saturday. It should be expected.

Now let’s talk about Kuo for a second. I don’t read too many medical books on arm injuries, but if I did, I should see Kuo in them.

Kuo has had two Tommy John surgeries and a shoulder surgery and somehow is throwing his fastball at 97 mph. How is this possible? He is a medical miracle that should be in every medical book that covers arm surgeries.

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