I kind of wonder though, are there are any teams that do especially well, let alone become more disciplined and situationally aware, when they fall behind early and don't get contributions from their two best hitters?
The team has obviously had some poor patches in the past month but overall they're currently 4th in the league in OBP and are a Top 10 offense by OPS, including with runners on and RISP. Even after what we just saw before last night. These things ebb and flow [and better at OBP than hitting means you leave some of those guys one]. Obviously you want them to have good ABs and try for line drive power not boom or bust power, especially since none of the players other than the two you named seem to have that kind of strength anymore [or in Bohm's case never did].
And for all the angst about the pen, last year's team had 26 saves in 40 opportunities before the break. This year it's 26 in 43. Obviously there have also been some bad relief outings in tie games and close games where the team trailed but that was probably true last year too. It has not been squandering wins left and right despite it's obviously shallowness/weakness.
