Give J.P. Arencibia some credit. At least when he grounded out on Thursday on two separate occasions, he did so to the right side of the infield to allow runners to score and advance to third base.
With a guy like Arencibia, you have to look at every possible positive aspect when he does absolutely anything, so Arencibia had a couple of big moments for him in Thursday afternoon's comeback win over the Mariners.
On two separate occasions, Rangers manager Ron Washington had Leonys Martin lay down sac bunts to move runners from first and second to second and third, respectively, setting the table for Arencibia. Both times, he grounded out to second base to allow both runners to advance.
"Arencibia is a part of this team, and he has to deliver too," manager Ron Washington told reporters. "So I put him in a situation to deliver and he got us two runs, productive outs. Base hits aren't always the key. He had two productive outs today."
After the game, Arencibia seemed to take offense when someone referred to him scuffling at the plate, but hey, that's what happens when you're hitting south of .100 with an OPS of .211. Awful, just awful.
"What's your definition of scuffling?" Arencibia said. "Let's talk about hard-hit balls. It is what it is, but I'm hitting balls hard at people, and for whatever reason it's going the wrong way. I easily could have had two hits today. Scuffling for you maybe because of the numbers, but it's a lot more than that.
"I'm trying to help the team win and do the little things like that [driving in runs with productive outs]. That's important."
Hey, the two runs he drove in were the difference in Thursday's game, so we'll take it, but how bout you have some humility?
