Good morning from New York,
The Padres can’t get to Coors Field soon enough.
Because they don’t seem to know what else might fix their broken offense.
“I don’t know if anybody can identify what the true problem is,” Eric Hosmer said. “We’re preparing the same, going about everything the same. The results are just different.”
The offense that was near the top of the major leagues in virtually every category in 2020 and was trending that way this season has been among the majors’ worst for the past two weeks.
There seem to be certain characteristics that indicate the Padres are a team caught in a frustrating limbo between getting on base and getting the ball out of the park.
They are accomplishing so many of the things they believe constitute a good offense. The only thing missing is the actual results that lead to runs.
The Padres take more pitches than any team — both in and out of the strike zone. They swing and miss less than all but one team and put their swings in play more than all but one team. They strike out less frequently than all but one team and walk more frequently than all but five teams.
Yet their batting average on pitches in the strike zone is lower than all but three teams, and their batting average on pitches in the heart of the strike zone is eighth-lowest in the majors. They also have averaged less than one home run a game, which is fourth lowest in the majors.
Could it be that in their dogged pursuit of being selective they actually have lost touch with their quest to be aggressive? Are they too passive to be effective sluggers?
“I don’t think so,” Jayce Tingler said this weekend. “I think we’ve just hit a little bit of a patch where we’ve got four or five guys not clicking on all cylinders. I’d say as a group we have ultra-talented guys. We’ve got guys that have done it in the past, and they’ve got long histories of (doing) it. I think it’s more right now guys trying to do too much and carry a little too much weight. I feel like once we get two or three guys going, how that can be contagious and all of the sudden we start to get the ball going downhill a little bit.
“I don’t think it has much to do with our approach. I think we’re trying to do maybe a little too much, maybe we’re getting a little too big at times on some of those hittable pitches trying to do too much and just missing the barrel. I feel confident that if we get good pitches, if we get barrel to ball, you’re going to start to see the slug start to go up.”
Not surprisingly, that is consistent with what hitting coach Damion Easley said recently.
The Padres knew this wasn’t going to be easy. They predicted after their successful and exciting 2020 season that they would no longer be sneaking up one anyone.
Maybe it’s just more difficult than they thought going from hunter to hunted. Perhaps other teams are more geared up to beat the Padres than the Padres are to be the Padres.
“That lineup is incredible,” Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman said yesterday after allowing the Padres one run in 6 1/3 innings. “You have to be locked in from pitch one, truly. You can’t fall into any trends, and you can’t be in the heart of the plate with the lineup. You have to live on the edges … and you really have to have a good mix.”
Stroman, who yesterday beat the Padres for the second time in a week, is a heck of a pitcher. His 2.33 ERA ranks 10th in the National League. Jacob deGrom, who on Friday night also scored his second win against the Padres in a week, leads the NL with a 0.56 ERA and might just be pitching as well as anyone ever has over a two-month span.
But even pitchers like Joey Lucchesi, who starts today’s series finale here, have found more success against the Padres than they should. Lucchesi entered his June 4 start at Petco Park with a 6.56 ERA, gave up a first-inning homer to Manny Machado and then just three more hits and no more runs in 4 2/3 innings. That’s not a great outing, but it’s not how a championship contender treats a journeyman — at least not as often as the Padres have treated middling pitchers while losing 10 of their past 13.
And if you haven’t read enough about the ice-old Padres offense lately, there were some more nuggets in my game story (here) from yesterday’s 4-1 loss.
Anyway, after one more game at Citi Field, where the Mets have allowed a major league-low 1.82 runs per game, the Padres head to Denver for three games.
Not only is the air thin a mile high, that thin air will be heated. Baseballs likely will be flying even farther than usual in temperatures that are supposed to reach 99 degrees all three days the Padres are at Coors Field. And after playing the first-place team in the NL Central (the Cubs) and NL East (Mets) for 13 consecutive games, the Padres play the Rockies, whose 25-40 record is third worst in the NL and whose minus-62 run differential is also third worst.
It can’t hurt.
Tidbits
- Fernando Tatis Jr.’s home run in the seventh inning yesterday was his first in 31 at-bats. The 30 at-bats between homers was his longest drought of the season — more than three times his major league-leading average of one homer every 9.7 at-bats.
- Tatis has struck out three times in back-to-back games and 12 times in the past five games (20 plate appearances). Of those 12 strikeouts, five have been on sliders low and away out of the zone, and one on a curve ball low and away out of the zone.
- With singles his first three times up yesterday, Tommy Pham had his first three-hit game of the season and his second with the Padres. His .441 on-base percentage in his past 21 games (91 plate appearances) is fifth highest in the majors since May 21.
- Reliever Pierce Johnson yielded one home run in his first 22 appearances (18 1/3 innings) this season. Yesterday was the second one he has given up in three games (three innings). Both have been hit by the first batter he faced.
Glove answers
I had two questions I’d been meaning to ask regarding the catcher’s glove Tingler wears when he is cruising around the field helping with drills. Why does the left-handed former outfielder wear a catcher’s glove? And where did he get it, given that a catcher’s glove for the right hand is rare?
The answers are somewhat related. He prefers a catcher’s glove to an outfield glove, and he was honored that fellow lefty MacKenzie Gore, the Padres’ top pitching prospect, gave it to him.
All right, that’s all I have for you. This offense is exhausting, and there is an early game today.
Talk to you tomorrow.
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June 13, 2021 at 09:30PM
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