Manager Bob Melvin shifts focus to situational hitting as offensive funk continues, hoping to flip script in close games
Everyone from Bay Park to the studios in Bristol, Conn., thought these Padres would be unstoppable mashers. They would hit and hit and hit until opposing pitchers developed whiplash. They would club three-run homers in their sleep.
It’s the oldest bedrock stuff in baseball. Move runners. Dial in two-strike approaches. Play clean and smart defense. Make base-running a weapon. In the aftermath, it’s not always the home runs you failed to hit but a critical run or two you didn’t manufacture. It also sent a message to a team struggling to find itself. Without homers raining down, you absolutely cannot afford to miss opportunities in the close ones.
“Sometimes that can make you lose sight of what the task is, having a good at-bat and get the next guy up there. When the struggles start to compile everybody is like, now I’m really going to hit this three-run homer and turn this season around. That’s not really how a good year is put together. You stack good days on top of each other.”“We’ve been working on it pregame, staying up the middle, a base hit’s OK, too, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a homer,” he said.
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