San Diego Padres: These offensive stats are an example of their overall struggles in 2023

Things have not gone the way the San Diego Padres have hoped they would in 2023. They are stuck in fourth place in the National League West and it's just as bad in the Wild Card race where they are stuck behind three teams they need to climb over for the final spot.

With each passing day, it's becoming harder and harder to see their path to the postseason and it's getting smaller and smaller every day. Why are they in this position? It can be traced to multiple things, but a set of offensive stats that are glaring and one of the reasons why they are in the position they are in.

San Diego Padres are struggling in three different leverage situations offensively

We know that the Padres have been an inconsistent team all season long. It doesn't matter if it's the top, middle, or bottom third of the order, timely hits and hits, in general, have been tough to come by at times. In three different leverage situations, the Padres have struggled, as was recently pointed out by author Joe Posnanski.

Those are less-than-ideal numbers, but what makes them even more disappointing is that the league average is below.

Note: All numbers above were before Friday's win in Arizona.

In low-leverage situations, the Friars are above the league average. They are around the league average in middle-leverage situations, but when it comes to high-leverage situations, that's where they are struggling and the results are reflective of offensive struggles.

There really is no one person to blame for this. However, when you are paying superstars in their prime to come up big in situations like this, you end up underperforming as a team. Gary Sanchez has been a nice addition to the lineup, but he can't do it every night. Manny Machado struggled last weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers when the Friars dropped three out of four at home, then went to Seattle and was swept in a two-game series. They scored a grand total of one run in two games and left 12 on base against the Mariners.

If the Padres are going to get to the postseason, they are going to need to go a run where they win 10 out of 15 games or something like that and other teams come back to earth a little bit. The only way they are going to do that is if they improve these leverage batting numbers.