It was the best of batting averages, it was the worst of batting averages, it was the age of Mets, it was the age of Nationals, it was the epoch of- Okay, enough of that silliness.
It's the 5th of May and the Marlins' second baseman is batting .433 while the Phillies' second baseman is 330 points of batting average worse.*
* Not a typo.
Which led to this:
Is our humble existence really so simple, in this year of Our Lord two thousand and fifteen?
Probably not. We can probably assume that Gordon's not really a .433 hitter and Utley's not really a .103 hitter. But you can't argue that Utley's just been unlucky this season; that 16% hard-hit rate is just half what it was last year. In fact, you can argue that while Utley a) does not deserve his batting average, b) he has actually been terrible.
Meanwhile, Gordon's hard-hit rate is actually a touch worse than in previous seasons. ESPN.com's David Schoenfield looked at all 45 of Gordon's hits and found essentially what you would expect: a lot of baseballs have found a lot of holes.
Hey, it happens. He's probably not going to hit even .320 this season, but this wildly improbable start might get him into the All-Star Game.
Oh, and Chase Utley's getting a mental break.
