Breaking news: Evan Longoria is good

May 10, 6:47 AMTampa Bay Rays ExaminerRob Quinn

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Longoria's dream season continued on Saturday at Fenway AP/Mary Schwalm

Evan Longoria’s blistering start continued Saturday as he smashed his eleventh homer of the season and drove in five runs to increase his Major League leading total to an astounding 44 RBI. Let’s take a deeper look at the Rookie of the Year’s sophomore numbers.

Longo’s .367 batting average is fourth in the American League. If he keeps it up, he has a chance to set the record for highest batting average following a Rookie of the Year season. Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins currently owns the record – he hit .332 in 2007 after winning the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 2006.

Projecting stats out over a full season is always fun. Longoria is on pace for – get this – 55 homers and 222 RBI. He should break Hack Wilson’s record of 191 RBI sometime next week. The Rays’ phenom also leads the Majors with 15 doubles, putting him on pace for 75 on the season. The all-time record for doubles in a season is Earl Webb’s 67 from 1931.

Evan had a pretty good month in April. He became the first-ever Tampa Bay player to win an AL Player of the Month award, tying the Rays’ team record with 24 April RBI. He’s taken it to another level in May. Longo will enter play on Sunday, May 10 with 20 RBI in the month. The club record for RBI in May is Fred McGriff’s 26 from 1999. The club record for ANY month is 29 – accomplished twice by Carlos Pena. Longoria should bust those marks without a problem.

One team in particular has been the victim of most of Longoria’s soul crushing. The Red Sox are getting pretty sick of seeing Longoria hurt them. Thanks to Bill Chastain over at MLB.com for these numbers – Evan has driven in 21 runs in nine games against Boston in 2009. The most RBI against the Red Sox in a single season in the divisional play era (1969 to present) is 24 by Ken Griffey, Jr. in 1996. Longoria has nine more games against the Sox this season to get himself four more RBI and pass Griffey.

Teams just can’t pitch to Longoria right now. He’s so tough to get out because he is hitting every pitch in every different part of the strike zone. He’s turning on inside fastballs and driving offspeed pitches away to right field. There is just no way to attack him. Even when pitchers get ahead of him in the count, it doesn’t matter – six of his eleven home runs have come with two strikes.

With the record pace Longo’s driving in runs, it should come as no surprise that he is at his best with runners on base. He’s hitting .406 with men on base and .362 with runners in scoring position. If B.J. Upton can get going in the leadoff spot, Longoria will see even more RBI opportunities as the season rolls along.

Okay, I promise I won’t write about how good Evan Longoria is again for at least another two days.

Does Longoria have what it takes to make a run at Hack Wilson’s untouchable RBI mark? Let me know in a comment.

Finally, Bartlett rolled another one through the shortstop/third base hole on Saturday. Is he becoming himself again?

Jason Bartlett hits: 39

Jason Bartlett groundball singles between short and third: 8

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