Nina's Sports Bad Boys Blog World: Young moves into leadoff spot for D-backs

Friday, April 22, 2011

Young moves into leadoff spot for D-backs

Enright learning from early season struggles

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NEW YORK -- Kirk Gibson does not like to go into much detail when discussing his reasons for why he makes out the lineup the way he does.

So the D-backs manager didn't have a lot to say about why outfielder Chris Young was hitting leadoff for Friday's opening game against the Mets. It was the first time since Spring Training that Young had hit leadoff.

"He's been there before, he's been productive for us," Gibson said. "He's a threat on the base, he can also pop one and you're up 1-0."

Young has more plate appearances in his career in the leadoff spot than any other position, and last season he had an .853 OPS (on-base plus slugging) in that spot in 173 plate appearances. However, this spring, Gibson raved about Young's knack for driving in runs and envisioned using him in a run-producing spot.

Willie Bloomquist has gotten the majority of the time in the leadoff spot this year, but he was out of the lineup Friday.

"I don't see my approach changing too much," Young said of whether he had to make any adjustments moving to the top. "I'm still going to be the same type of hitter."

Gibson said he took a nap on the team's charter flight from Cincinnati to New York following Thursday's game and when he woke up, he decided to hit Young leadoff. How long that lasts is anybody's guess.

"We're going to have to wait and see," Gibson said when asked if Young would stay there.

Enright learning from early season struggles

NEW YORK -- It looked for awhile like Barry Enright had figured out his early season struggles during his last start.

The D-backs right-hander cruised through the first five innings with just one hit -- an Aubrey Huff homer -- against him. Then things fell apart in the sixth as the Giants scored four times and chased him from the game.

The big hit of that inning was a two-run homer by Buster Posey on a pitch that Enright regretted throwing. Not just because of the end result, but the thought process behind it.

"I threw five fastballs [inside] of the six pitches to Posey," Enright said. "I didn't need to keep going in there. I should have gone away. You can't stay in one place with him."

There was a delay at the beginning of the sixth when catcher Miguel Montero was hit in the groin by a foul tip that threw Enright off a little bit.

"I didn't get to throw warmup pitches again," Enright said. "But there again, that's a mentality thing and I can't let that happen. It just kind of threw me off a bit, but there's no excuse."

Still, D-backs manager Kirk Gibson saw improvement in Enright's performance.

"I thought he threw all of his pitches more effectively," Gibson said.

Enright will make his fourth start of the year Saturday afternoon against the Mets at Citi Field.