Vilade’s game blossoming at bat, in field
Isotopes outfielder still seeking first HR
He’s hardly slumping. Certainly not like his slow month of April, anyway.
But 23-year-old Albuquerque Isotopes outfielder Ryan Vilade also knows how close he seems to have been recently to really breaking out at the plate.
Take Wednesday night, for example.
The Isotopes lost 14-7 to visiting El Paso, but the box score tells you Ryan Vilade, hitting second in the lineup, had a productive night. He was 1-for-3 at the plate with a run scored, two RBIs and drew a walk, helping extend his on-base streak to 20 consecutive games.
“Yeah, did his job, man,” Isotopes manager Warren Schaeffer said after the game. “… That’s the kind of player he is. He’s a team player. He gets the job done.”
After a .206 average in 63 at-bats in the month of April, Vilade has hit .270 with 13 RBIs and drawn 18 walks since. On the season, he’s hitting .247 with 18 RBIs and has yet to hit a home run.
In the first inning, Vilade took an 0-1 Ryan Weathers pitch for a ride to deep left-center field — about 374 feet from home plate.
Unfortunately, the Isotopes Park outfield wall at that location is about 375 feet from home plate and El Paso left fielder Esteury Ruiz, slamming against the wall, made a great catch on a full sprint. He robbed extra bases from Vilade on a shot that was about a foot away from being his first home run of the season and just a couple inches away from being a sure-fire double, if not triple off the wall.
Still, it was a sacrifice fly that did bring home Wynton Bernard from third for Vilade’s 18th RBI of the season and gave the home team an early 1-0 lead.
He got the job done, but it felt so close to something more.
“That guy goes up and robs what could have been a double
or a triple, but it’s kind of one of those things where, hopefully, the baseball gods can flip it around,” Vilade said.
Growing up in a minor league park (his dad was a longtime hitting coach with the Double-A Frisco Rough-Riders when Vilade grew up), and now being in his sixth season of professional baseball after being a second-round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies in the 2017 MLB draft, Vilade is well aware that the baseball season is a long one — one that has no place for feeling frustrated when you’re hitting the ball well, but it just keeps finding opposing gloves.
“I feel like I’m having productive at-bats. I’m hitting balls really hard,” Vilade said. “It’s one of those things where I feel like not a lot of stuff is landing for me right now, but I’m still trying to have productive at-bats, to win ballgames. …
“The good thing is, is it’s a long season. I’ve seen it. … I know how month to month it can be for professional guys as myself and everyone’s clubhouse that’s just how it is.”
Schaeffer says he knows what the at-bats are telling him about Vilade, even if the box score isn’t.
“I know what you’re talking about,” Schaeffer said. “You see the zero under the home run line, right? But that’s not for him to worry about right now. I mean, he’s making hard contact, driving the ball getting the job done for the team. … Those homer numbers will come down the road.”
Also, one year after the Rockies converted him to the outfield after being a lifelong middle infielder, Vilade is much improved defensively.
“Defense is night and day from last year,” Schaeffer said. “He works harder than anybody.”