SAN DIEGO – Jeimer Candelario ranks among the league leaders in doubles, on pace now for 50 of them by season’s end. Ask the Nationals’ No. 3 hitter about his offensive approach, though, and his answer has less to do with how he gets to second base and more to do with what happens once he’s there.
“Getting in scoring position, for me, is really, really important,” he said. “Because I’ve got a chance to score. That’s how you win ballgames. We’ve got Meneses hitting fourth, and he’s a guy that can put the barrel on the ball. I want to be able to score for him and for the team.”
Candelario knows of what he speaks. Everybody loves to see him hit doubles, but nobody loves it more than the guy who bats behind him and has gone above and beyond to drive him in as well as anyone in the majors.
Joey Meneses’ season totals may not turn heads. He’s batting a healthy .293, but slugging a mere .381. One of baseball’s best (and most surprising) power hitters after he debuted at age 30 last August, he has managed only two home runs through the Nats’ first 77 games this season.
Meneses, though, is doing one thing exceptionally well this year: He’s driving in runs at a remarkable rate when given the opportunity.
With an RBI single in the sixth and then a two-run single in the seventh inning during the Nationals’ 9-3 victory over the Padres on Sunday, Meneses officially became the majors’ best hitter with runners in scoring position. He’s now batting a whopping .446 (33-for-74) with runners on second and/or third, better than Miami’s Luis Arraez, whose .441 average with runners in scoring position is only slightly better than his .399 overall average.
And the numbers get even more astounding when you consider only at-bats with runners in scoring position taken against right-handed pitchers. In those situations, Meneses is 27-for-50, an unfathomable .540 batting average.
How is he thriving to that extent in such pressure-packed scenarios?
“I think I just change my focus a little bit,” he said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. “I go up there thinking I can give a more aggressive swing, not complacent. Just find a good pitch and make hard contact. That’s all I’m trying to do. I’m not worried so much about my mechanics.”
Manager Davey Martinez believes Meneses has been able to limit the number of times he chases pitches out of the zone when facing clutch situations. That, in turn, leads to more consistent, hard contact, which leads to runs driven in.
Meneses believes his adrenaline levels change when batting in those spots.
“Sometimes you try to do too much,” he said. “But I somehow find a good balance between being too aggressive and too complacent, in the middle with the way I feel, for some reason, when I go up there. It’s just a good balance.”
Twenty-seven of Meneses’ 33 hits with runners in scoring position have been singles, many of those line drives to center or right field. He rarely drives in more than one run at a time.
But that’s not the worst fault a hitter can have. Sure, more power would be lovely. But short of that, the Nationals will happily take consistent singles that bring home a teammate from second or third base.
“For some reason this year, it hasn’t been as easy to hit home runs as it was last season,” Meneses said. “I think about it. I keep working. And it’s something on my mind, obviously. But at the same time, I’m just going to go out there and try to produce and help the team anytime I can drive in a run, and help the team win. That’s what I’m going to focus on as well.”
For this team, with all its issues scoring runs, a cleanup hitter with a .446 average with runners in scoring position is a welcome presence.
“I try to tell these guys: Run production is huge. If you can drive in runs, you can help us,” Martinez said. “And he’s been doing that for us all year. Coming in big moments, driving in big runs, moving the baseball.
“I still believe the home runs will come. I know he only has a few. But I think once he starts getting the ball in the air, they’ll start coming. He hits the ball hard. But when there’s guys to be driven in, he’s one of the guys I hope gets a chance to do it.”