Scubbies 9, Drinos 6

Lately I've been noticing all the bombs Adrian Gonzalez has been hitting and it seemed to me he was hitting all the bombs in clutch, late-inning situations. To verify that observation I took a look at the game log of Adrian's 2008 bombs on the indispensable baseball-reference.com.

And what did I find?

Confirmation of course that Adrian is a beast.

To wit ...

Of Adrian's 18 bombs so far this season, only 5 were hit in the 7th inning or later, but his last 4 bombs all came in the 7th inning or later (so that explains why it seemed to me he was hitting so many late inning bombs).

The five bombs after the 7th inning include the bottom of the 18th walk-off game winner against Edinson Volquez on May 25, the bottom of the 7th bomb off the Nats' Charlie Manning on May 27, the top of the 10th bomb off the Gints' Alex Hinshaw on June 1, and the bottom of the 9th 3-run jack off the venerable Carlos Marmol that brought the Drinos to within 1 run of the Scubbies with only 1 out (of course Tony Clark and Michael Barrett quickly made game-ending outs).

All of these bombs either gave the Drinos a win, a critical late inning lead or gave them a chance to win in just the past 8 or so days.

And if even only 5 of Adrian's 18 bombs have come in the 7th inning or later, all of his bombs this season (with the exception of one blowout loss to Houston) have come when the Drinos were either tied or losing the game. True, some of that is a function of the fact the Drinos have not had many leads this year, but, when you look closer, you realize that every one of Adrian's bombs (with the exception of the bomb off Marmol that brought the Drinos to within 1) have come when the Drinos were only 1 or 2 runs down.

In other words, Adrian is a total clutch monster beast.

Just to give a few examples to illustrate the point:

April 2: down 3-2 and facing Wandy Rodriguez, Adrian hits a 2-run, go-ahead bomb;
April 22: down 2-0 and facing Brandon Backe, Adrian hits a 3-run, go-ahead jizzack;
May 10: tied 0-0 and facing Ubaldo Jimenez, Adrian hits a 3-run, go-ahead bomb; and
May 22: down 2-1 and facing Aaron Harang, Adrian hits a 2-run, go-ahead bomb.

And Adrian is doing all this at the age of 26 and in only his third full season. It makes you wonder what Adrian will do once he gets into his late 20s and acquires his man-strength.