Tommy Pham’s Bat Is Wide Awake & Just In Time To Keep The Padres In The Race

Tommy Pham’s Bat Is Wide Awake & Just In Time To Keep The Padres In The Race

by | Jun 20, 2021 | THE LEAD OFF

Tommy Pham is doing everything in his power to keep the San Diego Padres in contention. 

Over his last 10 games, Pham has affected the boxscore in every way possible. Not only is he hitting .375 (15-40) while scoring 10 runs and knocking in 3 runs and hitting a couple of homers. He’s also coaxed 4 walks and even swiped 2 bags. 

He’s definitely in a soul brother show-glow-groove. 

But like all quality ballplayers, Tommy knows he can do more.

 

 

“The only thing missing from my game is the consistency with the power,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “I’m still working on it. Power comes in bunches. But also, there is a consistency element to it as well. I always feel I want to leave a series with one or two extra-base hits.”

While Pham has only hit 6 home runs so far, his recent offensive explosion hit the breaks on an early-season skid that had him looking like a shell of himself. 

“Everyone has a bad 150 at-bats, mine just happened in April. So now I’ve got to do everything I can to make everything level out. It’s a frustrating game. You can do everything right and still not reap the benefits of it.”

This offseason, that last sentence almost came to fruition for Pham in the worst way possible. According to San Diego Police, eyewitness reports say Pham was attacked after asking two strangers involved in an argument near his car to move. 

The stab wound was not life-threatening, but lately, fans have made it difficult to put the incident behind him. Pham has noticed an increase in fan rowdiness and has even had his offseason assault used to taunt him.

“Fans have been very disrespectful this year,” Pham said. “I need to talk to the MLB. The vulgarity this year, the gestures, I’ve never seen it at this level. I want to know if this is just because fans have been gone for a year and now they’re back and acting a certain way. That (stuff) shouldn’t be tolerated.”

Pham makes a great point mentioning the fact fans have been away from the ballpark, and recent incidents across sports have seen fans acting out in an unusually bold manner. But while the hiatus may have indeed fueled what’s happening, we cannon write this off as typical “fan behavior”.

Still, the negative doesn’t stop Pham from contributing to everything that makes the sport of baseball great for the community.

 

 

The MLB released a statement emphatically denouncing any inappropriate behavior by fans, so hopefully going forward we will see fans being ejected and banned for fan abuse.

You’ll never silence every critic, but if Pham keeps hitting like this, there won’t be much to trash him about.