You Can Learn A Lot About A Team On Getaway Day

The sluggishness won't burn off in San Diego

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A May Gray Day Game projects a certain mood. The marine layer that settles above coastal San Diego is particularly prominent this month. Unwitting tourists find a destination in stark contrast to the city depicted on postcards, on the 18th green at Torrey Pines South, and in the endless summer spirit of a Beach Boys surf song.

This maritime malaise has seeped into the home clubhouse at Petco Park, where yesterday the Padres dropped the rubber match of a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals. The 14-31 Royals.

It’s not uncommon to find more energetic crowds at Spring Training than at a getaway day game early in the regular season. Of course, those spectators in March are inspired by a reprieve from winter, less concerned with the final score, and spiritually enlightened by — shall we say? — liquid sunshine.

That is to say, there’s a mental element to a midweek day game that impacts everyone from fans and vendors to ushers, broadcasters and players. We don’t need to glimpse much of a sample size to agree that no one would want photo day to fall on the morning of a day game.

Routines that players come to rely on — sleep schedules, meal times, pre-game habits — are disrupted by a 1:10 PM first pitch. The quick turnaround from leaving the ballpark after a night game to returning the following morning and preparing physically presents a challenge. A midweek day game is like adding an obstacle course along a 1,000-foot stretch of a marathon. It will test you physically, mentally, and emotionally, and some will question why it even exists.

I’ve long believed that effort can translate to results more directly during an afternoon affair. In a game of adjustments, adaptation is key on getaway day.

On paper, the Padres were expected to win this matinee. Yu Darvish took the ball for San Diego, and he was squaring off against Carlos Hernandez. Entering the game, Hernandez had made 18 appearances for the Royals this season, all out of the bullpen. While Kansas City endeavored to cobble together 27 outs, mixing and matching available arms as needed, the Padres sent out a frontline starter who often pitches into the seventh inning.

For the first three innings, Darvish gave the impression that he’d make quick work of the opponent.

Against a largely overmatched Royals lineup, Darvish cruised, facing the minimum the first time through the order. He dropped a particularly nasty 75 MPH curveball on Nate Eaton for a swinging strike three, en route to striking out the side in the third. It felt like Darvish’s game to control.

But on the offensive side, the Padres failed to capitalize on early opportunities. As the announced crowd of 32,416 filled in the seats, the Royals hung around. Or, more accurately, the Padres allowed the Royals to hang around.

So, in the fourth inning, when MJ Melendez drove in the game’s opening run on the first of his two doubles against Darvish, San Diego’s early offensive failures hung more heavily above Petco Park.

I don’t like using words like urgency to describe perceived effort. Every player wants to win. Each is trying to win. And everyone in the Padres clubhouse knew they boasted the more talented side of the matchup. So I don’t believe that a lack of urgency undermined the Padres’ at-bats with runners in scoring position. It was a lack of execution, which has been a theme for this team for the first quarter of the season. Even so, the eventual outcome of this game could have been flipped by almost every single San Diego plate appearance.

After falling behind, 4-1, the Padres shrunk the deficit to one only six batters later. They were one swing away all day.

Trent Grisham, center fielder for the Padres, had a game to forget. He was 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. Two of them came against left-handed pitching; I could argue that Grisham wasn’t the problem as much as the lack of a right-handed bat that manager Bob Melvin could trust in the situation.

Did I mention that Grisham’s three final at-bats all came with the bases loaded? A run-scoring balk was the offensive highlight of his day.

Thirteen strikeouts overall offset the nine walks issued by Royals pitching. I don’t have the data to substantiate this claim, but I’d bet that, most of the time, when a team receives nine free passes, it wins the game.

The Padres had ample offensive opportunity throughout the first seven innings, yet they required a solo homer, the aforementioned bases-loaded balk, and some defensive uncertainty by KC’s middle infielders to scratch across single runs.

The getaway-day demons punished the Padres on Xander Bogaerts’ run-scoring infield single. As Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. stepped in front of second baseman Michael Massey and mishandled the ground ball, the Padres’ Rougned Odor, who began the play on second, may have been able to score had he been running hard — “run hard!” — on contact. Whatever he may have assumed was going to happen didn’t. I couldn’t find video that documented Odor’s baserunning, but there is a clip of Ha-Seong Kim, who had scored on the play, initially waving Odor home.

Would Odor have been in a different state of mind in a night game? I don’t know. Odor got picked off at a critical juncture during Tuesday night’s game; his problems may not be time dependent.

Nevertheless, there’s a revealing rawness to baseball on getaway day. As far as the Padres go, they’re certainly not making their own good luck right now. Stumbling to 20-24 on the season, they hope this fog burns off before June Gloom sets in.

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