Padres' Mike Shildt Calls Out Players to Improve in One Key Area

Padres manager Mike Shildt (8) looks on against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the second inning at Chase Field on Aug. 6. | Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

The San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers are separated by a mere one game for first place in the National League West through Wednesday. On a map, their home ballparks are 123 miles apart.

In one critical area, San Diego and Los Angeles could not be farther apart.

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While the Dodgers lead MLB with a collective .865 OPS with runners in scoring position through Wednesday, the Padres rank 27th, with a .680 OPS. Only the Kansas City Royals (.679), Pittsburgh Pirates (.664) and Chicago White Sox (.660) rank lower.

The two teams are headed for a rematch of their three-game series that shifted the balance of power in the NL West last weekend when the Dodgers visit Petco Park on Friday. Manager Mike Shildt concedes that batting with runners in scoring position is an area that needs improvement.

“One thing we’ve still got to work on is runners in scoring position,” Shildt said (via Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune). “But we do have a lot of runners, so it’s a good thing.”

It's rare for Shildt to publicly call out one of his team's shortcomings, and their issues deserve a more thorough examination than his remark suggests. The Padres' issues batting with runners on second and/or third base are not as straightforward as they seem.

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With a runner on third base, for example, the Padres are hitting .289, with a .340 on-base percentage and .406 slugging percentage. That puts them close to a league average in terms of OPS (.746), according to Baseball Reference.

In every other runners-in-scoring-position situation, the Padres' bats have wilted. Their slash lines through Wednesday:

• With a runner on second: .228/.337/.325
• With runners on second and third: .231/.365/.330
• With runners on first and second: .250/.333/.350
• With runners on first and third: .223/.262/.340
• With the bases loaded: .252/.318/.393

Those figures adds up to an OPS that's at least 11 percent below league average in each situation — hence the Padres' overall struggles. It's not merely that their power disappears, their ability to hit for average in each situation is worse than it is without a runner in scoring position.

So while it's tempting to say the Padres are "trying to do too much" with runners in scoring position, that does not explain their inability to hit for average — or their success hitting for power with a runner on third base specifically.

About the only certainty is that it's frustrating to watch lesser opponents cash in with runners in scoring position, while the Padres continue to struggle. And it's an issue that ought to be fixed before their most important series of the season. The Padres and Dodgers don't play head-to-head again after Sunday.

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