PHAM KEEPS STRUGGLING ALONG
After a night that seemed promising, Tommy Pham’s Tuesday continued a tough start to his season.
Pham grounded out with the bases loaded to end two innings and saw his batting average fall to .128.
On Monday, Pham singled, his first hit in 17 atbats, and followed that with a hard liner to center field.
Entering Tuesday’s games, there were 16 players in the major leagues who had hit at least five balls in the air 368 feet or more this season.
Just two had zero home runs to show for it, Trevor Story and Pham.
At least Story had two doubles. Pham is 0-for-5 on those five balls, which traveled an average of 377 feet.
“I haven’t completely blown a gasket yet,” Pham said.
That’s good news, since it can seem he is on the verge of doing that from time to time.
“It’s frustrating,” he said. “Last year I was hitting the ball hard, but I was hitting the ball hard on the ground.
This year I’m hitting the ball hard in the air and I’m getting out.”
Pham entered Tuesday hitting fly balls 37.5 percent of the time he puts the ball in play this season and line drives at a rate of 12.5 percent. The f lyball rate was the highest in his career by far, and his 50 percent groundball rate was more than 12 percent lower than last season.
He was also hitting the ball hard. His 15 balls with an exit velocity of 95 mph or harder were tied for 24th in the majors.
Yet the player who entered the 2020 season with a career batting average of .277 and an .844 career OPS was following up last year’s injury-laden performance (.211 average and .624 OPS) with even worse numbers.
Bad luck is somewhat to blame. His .156 batting average on balls in play was eighth lowest in the majors. His “expected” statistics also ranked among the worst in baseball. Based on where and how hard he had hit balls this season, Pham’s expected batting average before Tuesday was .255, a difference of negative-120 points that was the 20th highest among qualifying players. His expected slugging percentage of .512 was 381 points higher than his actual slugging percentage, the third highest such disparity among qualifiers.
He doesn’t blame the new baseballs MLB is using, which were expected to minimally reduce the flight of balls.
“I always felt if I get it, it’s going to go, regardless,” he said. “So I never think about the new ball.”
What he does believe is that this season and last season have something in common: a small sample size. Not surprisingly, given his intensity, he believes he has to bear down more on every at-bat.
“When things aren’t going your way, you really have to not give away any atbats,” he said. “You have four at-bats a game; right now, I’m giving away two of those. So, it’s kind magnified right now. If I can do a better job of focusing every pitch every at-bat while I’m going through this, it will turn around. Over 60 games, you don’t see it. But over a 162game season, it evens out.”
Notable
Adrian Morejon and the Padres are awaiting word from additional doctors who are viewing his MRI results. Morejon left Sunday’s start with tightness in his left (throwing) forearm near his elbow.
• Fernando Tatis Jr. (shoulder) took several atbats in a simulated game pitched by Nick Ramirez and later participated in infield drills. This was consistent with the work he did in Texas, and he remains on track to return Friday when he is eligible to be activated off the injured list.
• Austin Nola was experiencing a recurrence of swelling in his left middle finger for a time, which has slowed his return. Manager
Jayce Tingler said the swelling has subsided and Nola has resumed playing games at the alternate site but had no update on the timetable for his return.