St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay having a great June

Can this really be the same Jon Jay that seemed like an automatic out during the 2013 postseason?

Don’t look now but Jon Jay is hitting .307/.367/.392 this season. During the stretch of games that started June 4th through last night’s game, Jon Jay is on a roll. He’s hitting .414 during this stretch with nine runs scored. The only sad part is that he hasn’t knocked in any runs in the last ten games. He’s only sat down on strikes two times while also drawing two walks in the same timespan.

While Jay’s slugging percentage is down compared to the month of April (.418), he’s been red hot during the month of June, hitting .371/.436/.400 so far. His OBP and SLG have improved upon the month of May. The question is: will Jay be able to keep up the pace?

Overall, Jay’s hitting has improved upon his 2013 campaign and the numbers are about par for what Jay did during the three seasons leading into last year.

I admit to being critical of Jay at times, especially during a stretch of games this year when he just wasn’t hitting the ball (April 25-29). It’s hard to really be critical of Jay’s performance during the month of May. Even though he hit .294 last month, there were eight games with only one plate appearance and one game with no appearances.

I can’t really criticize Mike Matheny for playing Jay over Peter Bourjos when Bourjos isn’t hitting the ball. While it is certainly true that there is a lot left to be desired with Bourjos, he’s just not really hitting the ball this season.

Bourjos was supposed to have been an awesome defender in the outfield and a speedster on the base paths but he’s not producing at the plate. I wish we could have seen the Peter Bourjos that played the last two years with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Face it, Jay earned the job and while he’s certainly no Willie McGee or Jim Edmonds in center field, he’s doing a fine job at the plate for the time being.