The Padres Are Flat-Out Awful With Runners in Scoring Position
The San Diego Padres lost another winnable game on Thursday and manager Bob Melvin was not happy about it. The 5-3 loss to the Twins dropped San Diego to 19-19 on the season. For anyone who has watched the Padres play, the club's issues are obvious. The team struggles to get hits in key situations and the numbers bear that observation out. The Padres are simply atrocious with runners in scoring position.
Through 38 games this season, the Padres rank dead last among MLB teams in batting average with runners in scoring position. As a team they're hitting .203 in those situations. The median MLB team is currently hitting .252, while the league-leading Texas Rangers are at .332.
San Diego ranks 29th in OPS with runners in scoring position at a woeful .648. The Detroit Tigers are the only team worse (.626), while the median team is currently at .752. The Rangers lead in that category as well with a .929 OPS.
With runners in scoring position and two outs, the Padres are hitting .203 (which ranks 26th), and have an OPS of .675 (20th). None of these numbers even approaches being average or acceptable.
The biggest problem here is that the Padres have a loaded lineup. They boast All-Stars Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts, Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Jake Cronenworth, plus veteran bats like Matt Carpenter and Nelson Cruz. Somewhere in there they should be able to find success. Melvin said as much on Thursday, adding that it was time for the players to stop talking about coming through and actually do it.
He's right. The Padres have more than enough offensive talent that they can't be a bottom-feeder in clutch situations. Hell, it would be disappointing if they were an average offense with RISP. Instead they're arguably the worst in baseball.
To further illustrated the point, what follows are the slash lines of the team's top guys with RISP:
Machado: .273/.316/.515
Tatis: .294/.333/.353
Bogaerts: .176/.341/.471
Soto: .217/.438/.348
Cronenworth: .176/.302/.235
Only Machado and Tatis can act like they've come through consistently this season.
As the Padres travel to Chavez Ravine to face the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers this weekend, it's clear their offense needs to turn things around. We're almost at the 40-game mark and it's fair to label the Friars as massively disappointing thus far.