Framing the Friars: Perdomo’s Struggles, Myers’ Slump, and Unexpected Sighs of Relief
Luis Perdomo took the mound today looking to continue his success from his last start against the Cleveland Indians.
Perdomo had a rough game from the jump, giving up a leadoff homer on his fourth pitch of the game. On a 1-2 count, Charlie Blackmon took Perdomo to deep right-center field to put the Rockies up early.
The fun didn’t stop there for the Rockies. In the second, three straight base hits drove in a second Rockies run.
Then, the third inning is really where problems started to rise for Perdomo. He allowed the first three batters to reach base before getting an out. After that, two straight walks drove in two runs. A two-out double allowed two more to score before he was replaced by Craig Stammen, who allowed a seventh run (credited to Perdomo) to score.
Allowing three straight lead-off hits follows course with the problems Perdomo has been having all season. He has started 84 innings this season and has allowed the leadoff hitter to reach in 38 of those innings (including today). So in over 45% of the innings Perdomo has started, the leadoff batter is reaching base.
It’s easy to fall behind in both confidence and in the counts when almost half the time you’re automatically putting a guy on base.
Of all these leadoff hits allowed, seven were doubles and two went over the outfield wall.
Perdomo needs to lock down and key in on the leadoff guy so he can record that key first out before any one reaches base.
On the bright side, Jabari Blash homered again. This time he hit a 477-foot bomb to right center field, which was the longest home run tracked by a Padres player in the history of the Statcast era. The homer had an exit velocity of 105.6 MPH off the outfielder’s bat.
Now its time to move from one slump (Perdomo) to the next; Wil Myers.
Myers had another 0-fer today, going 0-5 with four strikeouts and leaving five guys on the base paths. This performance drops him down to 8-42 on the month for a depressing .190 batting average and .261 on-base percentage.
After his hot .310 (batting average) start to the season in April, Myers has been on the steady decline. Since then he has hit a sorrowful .231 at the plate with just two more homers (nine) in the last three months than he hit in the first month (seven) of the season.
This type of play, which has been more low than high, puts Myers at the bottom of a list of first baseman with over 200 plate appearances over the last calendar year.
A lot of people are starting to turn their heads in concern towards Myers and his struggles. Andy Green took to his player’s defense on MLB radio Monday morning. In regards to Myers’ mediocre play, Green said:
It’s someone who really wants to be great. And sometimes, the desire to be everything for a baseball club can be something that inhibits you from being great, because you want it so badly. And for Wil, it just comes down to trusting how ridiculously talented he is, and not trying to be the man every single day, because I think he carries that on a very young club, like ‘hey I’m supposed to be doing all of this.’ And when you feel that way, rather than just letting yourself play free and easy, it becomes more difficult to play this game
I still think it’s too early to start worrying too much about Myers’ play, but it is something to take note of.
Moving forward, we have had some bad news in regards to injuries. Hunter Renfroe was moved to the 10-Day DL and Austin Hedges has been having “concussion-like symptoms” for three straight days now.
Even though both players are big parts of the lineup, their replacements have surely stepped up. Their subs have combined for a .354 batting average with 13 RBI, seven runs, and six home runs in the last three games. Simply amazing.
Hector Sanchez took over behind the dish and has hit 5-16 with seven RBI and four homers, including a walk-off 2-run home run against the cellar-dwelling Giants.
Jabari Blash took over in right and has hit 6-15 with six RBI and a 477-foot bomb hit Monday night in Denver for his second homer in four games.
These two may not be the go-to guys, nor the best choice to put in the field, but they have without a doubt provided some impressive and fun baseball in their short time since taking over.
Derek is a 22-year-old out of Lemon Grove, California. A burning passion for San Diego sports led him to pursue an opportunity to write and share about what’s going on with the teams in America’s Finest City. A young and aspiring sports journalist looking to grow his knowledge and expand his experience at any opportunity.
