Is Beckham Officially Here?

After his 3 for 3 day 2 RBI day today I thought it was time to go back to my prior thoughts on Gordon Beckham and revisit the situation. He's got his batting average up to .239 and his OBP up to .333. He now has 17 hits with 9 walks to go along with his 11 RBI including the game winner Saturday.

What I'm starting to think is that we may have finally uncovered the real Gordon Beckham. He's starting to recognize pitches much more consistently, he's fooled far less, and he never seems to have poor at bats anymore. His continued effort to go the other way with the ball brings a tear of joy to my eye, and his abilities at third base have grown substantially.

Luckily for the Sox they were able to tread water while he struggled. The weeks of hitting well under the Mendoza line obviously hurt the team at that point. But now that we have gotten to the core of the good hitter in Beckham it's time for the Sox to step up to the next level. I made a comment before about how I thought the Sox would be far better if he is good. Gordon has recorded a hit in 10 of his last 13 games played. The Sox record in those games is 9-4 and in the 3 games he didn't get a hit they dropped 2 of them.

Now I'm sure there are hitters that can be said the same about (like probably Alexei), but I said this a while back and I'm sticking to it. If you have a guy at the bottom of the Sox lineup that is able to consistently get on base and knock a few leftover runs from the middle of the order, this team is FAR more dangerous.

What I hope is that this is not just a phase and that this is the real guy. I have a feeling he will probably hit around .285 or so from here on out (starting 13 games ago when this little streak started). His average would then creep up to around .270 or so, and the Sox have a great chance of not only sticking around in the division, but possibly making a run at it for real. Let's just hope he can stay hot the team keeps feeding off his energy.

Photo courtesy of ESPN.com.