Markakis talks about his season

It's been one of those "weird years." That is the phrase Nick Markakis used to describe his season. In some respects, his stats have matched what he did last year. He hit .293 then and is at .293 now. He had 45 doubles last year and has 45 now. He had an on-base percentage of .347 last year and is at .367 now. He is tied for third in the AL in doubles, is tied for 11th in walks and is 14th in on-base percentage. He leads all league lefty hitters with an average of .351 vs. left-handed pitching. But he had 18 homers then to 10 now and 101 RBI in 2009 to 57 now. Strangely, his average is much better this year when batting with runners in scoring position at .326 to .299. Markakis said it's been a mixed bag when he looks at some of his stat categories. "Some are good, some of them are crap. But it's baseball. It's a tough year, we learned a lot. Some guys were asked to do things that they are not capable of doing. When you do that, you have to sacrifice things for the team to get this team and organization going back in the right direction. "One of those weird years. Some (of my stat) categories are where expected. The biggest thing I would have liked to have seen is to be a little more consistent than I was." Markakis was asked what he needs to do to increase his power numbers. "I think I need to bust my butt a little in the offseason, work harder and get stronger in my case. I need to get stronger this offseason," he said.