Loading... Please wait...

Stat of the Week: Inside the Padres-Rockies Series

Posted by

By now, you’re probably aware of this past weekend’s crazy, high-scoring series between the Padres and Rockies at Coors Field. The two teams combined for 92 runs, a record for a four-game series, and combined for at least 15 runs in each game. That’s plenty wild on the surface, but here at Sports Info Solutions we can never just take things at surface value. Let’s dig in a little deeper for some of the nuttiest stats of the weekend.

Not as much hard-hitting as you'd think

In a series of baseball games where the scores looked like a bunch of closely-contested NFL games, you’d think that there would be a large number of hard-hit balls. Well... not exactly. In the four-game set, the Rockies’ Hard Hit Rate (percentage of at-bats ending with a hard-hit ball) was only 25%, two points lower than their season average. The Padres came in a little above at 27%, but they were still a percentage point below their 2019 rate. Both teams were in the bottom 13 for hard hit rate over those four days. Did we mention they scored 92 runs?

The Padres defense just couldn't get outs

If it wasn’t from hitters smoking the baseball all over the field, then where were the runs coming from? How about some defensive numbers? The Padres managed to pull off two epic comebacks to salvage a series split, but they sure don’t have their gloves to thank; San Diego’s Range and Positioning cost them 7 runs for the series. The Rockies finished at -1.

Wil Myers alone cost his team four runs from Range & Positioning in center field (that’s a challenging place to play at Coors because of all the ground to cover).

Between the two teams, there were 51 players who saw time in the field in the series, and only six posted a Range and Positioning DRS above zero. Two of those six were pitchers. Eleven players were worthnegative-1 or worse.

Quite a series for Charlie Blackmon

We’ve got to give Charlie Blackmon credit. He came into the weekend with a very good .305/.361/.582 slash line...and exited it with a near-MVP-caliber .336/.385/.652, thanks to a 15-for-24 series with four home runs. He recorded four hits in each of the first three games, slumping to 3-for-6 (with a homer) in the series finale. Against pitches in the middle third of the zone (height-wise), Blackmon went a perfect 8-for-8. His “worst” zone was the lower third of the plate, where he still managed a 4-for-11 line.

It was a one-of-a-kind performance for a one-of-a-kind series.

SIS has relaunched FieldingBible.com to be your source for defensive metrics and information. The site features daily updates of player stats and provides background on how our stats are collected and calculated.


Sign up to our newsletter

Recent Updates