Jon Jay homers

During the 2011 run to World Series Championship, St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Jon Jay had himself quite an interesting season.

After bumping Colby Rasmus out of town, Jay spent most of the 2011 season hitting in the second spot in the Cardinals lineup.  Of the 107 times former manager Tony La Russa wrote Jay's name on the lineup card, Jay hit second in the lineup 72 times and he did so quite well.  Jay posted a .303 average and scored 41 runs in front of former first baseman Albert Pujols, now first baseman Lance Berkman, and left fielder Matt Holliday.

Now it is 2012 and despite his success at the top of the order in 2011, Jay finds himself further down in the lineup.  New manager Mike Matheny has employed an often used La Russa tactic by putting "thunder" in the two hole.  Thunder's name is Carlos Beltran, who's presence has moved Jay down to the seventh spot in the lineup on a regular basis.

Beltran was out of the lineup in the Cardinals 4-3 loss to the Reds on Wednesday afternoon and Jay suddenly found himself back hitting second and responded with his first home run of the season.

Jay has shown he is comfortable in his new home in the lineup though, hitting .304 on the season while getting on base 36 percent of the time while playing a stellar center field. 

While Jay showed up in the two hole on Wednesday, it is more likely that Matheny will continue to use the switch-hitting Beltran in the two hole for most of the season.

From the looks of the early season, that suits Jay just fine as the former Miami Hurricanes star has not missed a beat.   The Cardinals will need him to be an RBI threat at the bottom of the order and so far it looks as though Jay can fill the role.


(kffl.com)