Washington Nationals: Carter Kieboom soon to be labeled a singles hitter
Unless this guy starts getting some extra-base hits soon, Washington Nationals third baseman Carter Kieboom is going to be labeled a singles hitter.
If you missed the first game of the double-header last night and had to revert to the box score to get your statistics, you would see Carter Kieboom had one hit in two at-bats and he drove in a run.
The run scoring hit was a single, and without the luxury of seeing it, you may imagine a hard smash, high exit velocity, line drive. You would be mistaken. The stroke was a Punch and Judy style, inside out, ground ball to the right side.
An RBI single is an RBI single, no matter how you draw it up, so I am happy with the results.
For Carter Kieboom though, he is in danger of getting the label of being a singles hitter. We have home run hitters, gap hitters, slap hitters, and singles hitters, just to name a few. For a guy who crushed the ball in the minor leagues (91 extra base hits his last two years), Kieboom has failed to demonstrate this power in the big leagues.
He was up a year ago and struggled. He was given the third base job out of spring training this year, and struggled. After being sent down to the alternate training site, he resurfaced and has flirted with the Mendoza Line ever since.
In 127 career at-bats, Kieboom is hitting just .189. If he were to throw in a home run every now and again, one would look the other way on the low average. That’s what hitters do these days. Swing from their heels, hit home runs, and strikeout a lot.
Kieboom hasn’t mixed in the occasional home run. He hasn’t even mixed in the occasional double. He didn’t get his first extra base hit this year until his 21st game. And he hasn’t gotten one since.
On the season he has 19 hits. All but one of them are singles. Without knowing how he collected these hits, we can imagine a few Texas Leaguers were involved. Some seeing eye jobs. A few produced on inside out swings and maybe a duck snort or two.
Next. Three home games which summed up the season. dark
Singles hitters produce theses types of hits you know. I just hope Carter Kieboom doesn’t exclusively become one.