San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
PETCO STILL A PITCHERS’ BALLPARK
The fences have been brought in several times. Buildings have been erected that block out some of the wind that knock down baseballs. A top-heavy roster has some of the most imposing hitters in the game.
Still, Petco Park remains a place where offense — especially the Padres’ offense — goes to die.
Entering the weekend, not only was Petco Park averaging fewer runs per game than any other venue (3.62), Statcast’s park factors had Petco producing 15 percent fewer runs than the average ballpark, tied with the Mariners’ T-mobile Park for the worst in the majors. Only four parks trailed Petco’s home run metrics (86): the Diamondbacks’ Chase Field (84), the Pirates’ PNC Park (77), the Marlins’ loandepot park (76) and the Guardians’ Progressive Field (56).
A three-year window provides a much more comprehensive sample, and only the Mariners’ T-mobile Park (92) has a lower overall park factor score since the start of the 2021 season than Petco (94), according to data tracked by MLB’S Statcast.
The home run data over the last three years at Petco Park is a bit more favorable as Petco’s 93 score for long balls — with 100 set as the average, 93 means that 7 percent fewer home runs are observed at Petco — rank 21st in the majors.
But sometimes that can depend on when a ball is hit.
Excluding Saturday’s day game, four of the Padres’ eight home runs to start this homestand have arrived inside the first three innings of a game, before the sun set and the marine layer choked the atmosphere above Petco Park. Sixth- and eighth-inning blasts from Juan Soto (102 mph) and Nelson Cruz (112 mph) on Wednesday and Cruz’s solo shot in the seventh on Friday (96 mph) are outliers in this anecdotal observation, and that does not surprise Padres manager Bob Melvin.
Nor does he think incoming warmer weather should be all that impactful at Petco Park. He fields a team full of hitters that he expects to be able to clear any wall, anywhere at any time.
“I think regardless of what the weather is we have guys who can hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Melvin said. “I think it’s prudent for us not to think too much about (the warming weather improving hitting conditions). Some of our best baseball has been played hitting the ball the other way and kind of moving the line. And then when you don’t think of about it, all of a sudden one pops up because we have a lot of guys that can do it.”
A tale of two pitchers
Blake Snell never wanted to get traded (few players want that). Three years later, he was, in his words, “excited” to face the team that drafted him in the first round in 2011 and watched him win the AL Cy Young in 2018.
Brent Honeywell Jr., though, had a far different taste in his mouth as he stepped on to the mound on Friday to face old friends like
Yandy Díaz, Wander Franco, Randy Arozarena and Josh Lowe while throwing two shutout innings at the team that drafted him in the second round in 2014.
“Those are the dudes that helped me keep going,” Honeywell said Saturday afternoon. “It wasn’t (the Rays) system. It was the players.”
Unlike Snell, Honeywell said he “wanted to get traded quite a bit longer before” Tampa Bay sent him to Oakland in November 2021 for cash. By then, he’d already been sidelined for the better part of four years with four consecutive elbow surgeries, a trying stretch that clearly has not left a whole lot of warm and fuzzy feelings toward his time in the organization.
“All I know,” Honeywell said, “is I showed up to work every day for three years, about 8:30 to 10 o’clock in the morning. That’s all I know.”
He added: “The players, the guys I teamed up with over there, those guys are dogs.”
Setting the record
Saturday’s crowd of 43,180 was the Padres’ 27th sellout of the season in 36 dates at Petco Park, already surpassing the franchise record set late last year.
It’s a number that both impresses and distresses Melvin as the Padres entered Saturday just 15-20 at Petco Park. Their average of 40,647 fans per game, not including the two “home” games at Mexico City, ranks second in the majors behind the Dodgers’ 47,800 per game in LA.
“I think it’s amazing,” Melvin said. “We knew coming in that there’s going to be quite few people here this year, based on last year, based on the personnel we have. It hurts me that we have not played as well at home this year. We all feel it. These people inspire us like no other fan base. So we all owe them a little something more. Hopefully our home record gets a little bit better because they are out in full force from pitch one and it’s been amazing to watch.”