Morning Coffee: Padres’ Offense Has Turned it Around

May 9th is Tony Gwynn’s birthday. It is quite appropriate, therefore, that May 9th marks the day that the Padres’ offense turned it around. They scored 10 runs against the Marlins in that game, a nice run total, to be sure, but a fairly astonishing one after the team went 35 games at the start of the season without scoring more than 6 runs in any contest. In fact, the Padres only scored as many as 6 runs in 3 of their first 35 games.

Not including last night, in 17 games since Gwynn’s birthday, they have tallied 6 or more runs six times, and have scored 8 or more four times.

The team’s offensive stats have gone up across the board.

Before May 9

(35 games)

May 9 and after

(17 games)

Runs

92

77

Runs per game

2.6

4.5

Hits per game

7.3

8.2

Homers per game

.57

1.24

Batting average

.208

.261

Slugging

.318

.439

Strikeouts per game

8.4

7.6

Walks per game

2.2

2.9

May 9, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres second baseman

(9) is congratulated by catcher

(8) and first baseman

(23) after a two-run home run during the second inning against the Miami Marlins at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Who have the main contributors been to this offensive turnaround?  Since May 9th:

• Yonder Alonso appears to have completely turned it around, as he has a triple slash line of .304/.371/.536, with 5 doubles, 3 HR, and 8 RBI. In his first 35 games, his line was .157/.191/.217, with no homers and 6 RBI.
• Seth Smith has continued to tear the cover off the ball, hitting .352 with 5 doubles, a triple and 4 homers, slugging .704, while driving in 13 runs.
• On May 13, Carlos Quentin came off the DL. He is hitting .364 with 2 homers and 5 RBI in 22 ABs.
• Alexi Amarista is 6-for-16, for a .375 BA.
• Everth Cabrera has hit all 3 of his homers and driven in 7 of his 10 runs.
• Jedd Gyorko, while still struggling with his BA, has hit 4 of his 5 HRs and has driven in 11 runs in the 17 games.
• Chase Headley has hit .245 with 2 HR and 11 RBI, after hitting .186 with 7 RBI prior to May 9th.
• Tommy Medica has certainly helped the last few games, going 5-for-7 with a double, a homer and 2 RBI. (And, at of the time of this writing, has also doubled and tripled with two more ribbies in Wednesday night’s game.)

Not everyone has joined the party, but it is rare that a team has everyone hitting well all at once. While the rest of the team has found its hitting shoes, these players have slumped in the same time frame:

• Will Venable (.190)
• Yasmani Grandal  2-for-27 (.074)
• Cameron Maybin .184 BA
• Rene Rivera 3-for-23 (.130)

Let’s hope they’re not waiting for Dave Winfield’s birthday (October 3).