Padres Daily: Snell confounded; Tingler ticked; still chasing Giants

Eric Hosmer is congratulated by Wil Myers after Hosmer hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning at Oracle Park on Friday.
(Getty Images)

Padres have a dubious double play distinction; Kim’s questionable strikeout added to pile of balls called strikes

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Good morning from San Francisco,

It is difficult to imagine a pitcher more confounding or more confounded than Blake Snell.

“Maybe I’m thinking too much,” he said late last night. “That could be it. Trying to do too much, maybe. I don’t know. There’s a lot there. I feel good. It’s got to be me overthinking.”

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Snell was pulled with two outs in the fifth inning of last night’s 5-4 loss to the Giants having allowed one hit and walked six. It was the third time in seven starts with the Padres he has failed to get out of the fifth inning, and he has yet to go longer than 5 1/3 innings.

blake snell game logs correct
(baseball-reference)

While his lines are nothing like what you would expect from a pitcher who won a Cy Young Award three years ago, neither are his lines what you would expect from a guy who is consistently yanked from games before the sixth inning.

The four runs Snell was charged with last night — after reliever Austin Adams hit a batter and allowed a single that drove in both of his inherited runners — were the most Snell has allowed all season.

Even after that, he has allowed 15 runs (14 earned) and 24 hits in his 30 1/3 innings.

“The ball is coming out good,” Snell said. “They’re not hitting the ball. It’s me walking them, deep counts. … It’s pretty self-explanatory. I just need to start ... getting ahead and putting myself in position to succeed.

“The biggest thing for me is to breathe, not get too hard on myself in the moment and as upset with myself as I am. Just breathe a little bit and stop pressing so hard. We’re a month in and I haven’t pitched like myself, and I’m still doing pretty good. I need to step back and breathe. … I feel like I’m overthinking. I’m trying to do too much.”

He has 42 strikeouts. His stuff remains exceptional — if we are to judge by the strikeouts, the lack of hits, the types of swings opposing hitters are often taking and by the swings they are not taking.

Of the 43 pitches Snell threw in the strike zone last night, the Giants took 19 of them. Of their 24 swings, nine were with two strikes. So, basically, they swung at 15 pitches there weren’t absolutely compelled to.

“The pitches are good,” Snell said. “You could tell a good amount of them are auto taking. Anything off-speed, they’re not swinging. It’s more getting in the zone, making them start swinging. That’s when I can really start to succeed. Once I do that, we’ll be good. We’ll be able to take off.”

All season, left-handed batters have watched his pitches, swinging at less than half of his offerings. That’s because they have two hits in 26 at-bats. They might as well hope he walks them. Right-handed batters are hitting .244 and have a .382 on-base percentage against Snell. That latter number is 12th highest among 156 qualifying pitchers and it owes to his 19 walks to right-handed batters.

One of the Giants’ swings last night was on a fastball in the heart of the plate that Buster Posey hit the other way over the right field wall for a two-run homer. But Snell wasn’t even mad about that.

“It was down the middle, but I still I liked it,” he said. “I liked it because I’m challenging him. If I get ahead and they start thinking more, their swings won’t be as good as that one was. I’m not upset about it. It was in the zone. That’s my goal. … I just need to throw strikes.”

Yeah, he just needs to do that more.

Enough!

For the first time I can recall in his 99 games as a major league manager, Jayce Tingle bit on a question about umpiring.

Even if I missed something over the past two seasons, what he said last night regarding the called third strike on Ha-seong Kim that ended the game with Trent Grisham on deck was definitely Tingler’s most overt condemnation of an umpire.

“I thought it was a bad call,” Tingler said. “I don’t get it. That shouldn’t happen up here. I thought the ball was inside and up. Posey caught it and pulled it back. I don’t think that should happen. It feels like that’s happened to Kim several times. I feel like our guys do a very good job of commanding the zone. You hate to see a game end that way. Especially, we’ve got a chance there with Grisham coming up. That shouldn’t happen here.”

It wasn’t the worst call of the night. Not even close. And by my count, the Giants and Padres both had two more calls go against their hitters than for them last night.

What possibly happened is a buildup. It is not difficult to conceive Tingler is tired of watching his extremely selective team (the most selective in the majors, in fact) get balls called strikes.

The Padres have had 137 pitches outside the zone called strikes this season, third most in the majors behind the Dodgers and Rangers.

Little early, but still …

The Padres can still leave San Francisco in first place if they win the next two games.

They fell 1½ games behind the Giants last night. The Dodgers dropped another game in the standings.

NL WEST standings

Oh yeah, it’s May.

“There’s really not much benefit to it unless you hold that first place all year long,” Grisham said before the game.

He wasn’t saying it wasn’t important to come here and win, just that it’s a little early to be watching the standings too closely.

Thing is, it all feels so new for the rest of us.

The Padres have not led the NL West more than 17 games into the season since 2010. They were tied for first after nine games last season and after 17 games in 2016.

Tidbits

  • Wil Myers grounded into the Padres’ 33rd double play of the season, two shy of major league leader Houston and one more double play than the number of home runs the Padres have hit. The Padres are the only team to have homered fewer times than they have grounded into a double play.
  • Eric Hosmer singled and homered last night for his team-high 10th multihit game.
  • After his homer last night, Grisham is 7-for-15 with two doubles and a home run in four games against the Giants this season.
  • The batter Adams hit was his sixth in 9 2/3 innings. That is one more than any other pitcher has hit this season. None of the six pitchers who have hit five batters have thrown less than 28 2/3 innings.
  • Evan Longoria’s single off Adams was the first hit against him in 29 batters.
  • Nabil Crismatt pitched a scoreless eighth inning last night. He allowed four runs (three earned) in his five-inning relief appearance in Pittsburgh on April 13 but has not allowed a run in his other four appearances (4 2/3 innings).
  • Fernando Tatis was 0-for-4 last night and is 2-for-22 over his past seven games.

A day by the Bay

San Francisco is an adventure.

I love walking around here. But I was almost hit by a car yesterday. And I’m not being even a little bit dramatic.

A young lady was turning left on a red light, and she just kept rolling until she was no more than a couple inches from my roller bag as I jumped out of the way. I don’t think I would have been seriously injured, and she did apologize. I thought that was nice.

I will tell you what I said to her before she yelled, “I’m so sorry” out her window.

I said, “Hey.”

Later, I saw Willie Mays.

All in all, a good day.

That’s it for me. Quick turnaround for a day game today.

National TV (FS1) for the Padres and Giants.

Talk to you tomorrow.