Schimpf adds to absurd extra-base hit stats

Second baseman doubles twice, hits two homers in win over D-backs

August 20th, 2016

SAN DIEGO -- , the Padres' extra-base hit machine, had recorded singles for each of his last three hits entering play Friday night.
That was, no doubt, an anomaly, as Schimpf quickly reverted back to his old self in a 7-4 walk-off win over the D-backs.
Schimpf tied the game in the eighth inning with a two-run shot, before walking it off in the 10th with a three-run blast. Tack on a pair of doubles, and he became the ninth player in Padres history to record 12 total bases -- and the first since Khalil Greene did so in 2004.

Two months into his big league career, the pace with which Schimpf is racking up extra-base hits is absurd. He has 38 hits. Fourteen of them are homers, two are triples, 12 are doubles and just 10 are singles.
"Couple doubles, couple homers today -- it's really crazy," said Padres manager Andy Green. "You don't think that trend can continue at the level that it has. It's rarely a single. It's doubles and homers. He's got pop; he's squaring balls up."
Isolated power, or ISO, is a statistic that attempts to measure a player's raw power by taking his slugging percentage and subtracting his batting average. Essentially, only the extra-base hits count.
At this point, it feels like ISO was a statistic invented solely to measure the improbability of Schimpf's run since being called up in June. He's batting .235, but slugging .593 for an ISO of .358.
That's 40 points higher than anyone else in baseball this season with at least 150 at-bats -- and the highest mark for any player since Barry Bonds in 2004.
"I'm just going up there trying to drive the ball every time," Schimpf said. "The extra-base hits just happen sometimes, but I'm just up there trying to drive the ball."
For a 5-foot-9 middle infielder, Schimpf does a heck of a job of that.
The walk-off homer sent the crowd at Petco Park into a frenzy, but his eighth-inning blast may have been more impressive. Schimpf golfed a very good pitch from to the opposite field, tying the game.

"The ball he hit out on Burgos was really impressive," Green said. "Down in the zone, about an inch off the ground, he hits it out to left-center field. You don't see many guys, period, at any level with that kind of pop. It was impressive."
Schimpf hasn't hit many walk-off home runs in his life. He knows he had one at Triple-A El Paso earlier this season, but can't put his finger on any others.
The way he's hitting, he won't be seeing much more of El Paso.
With the power he generates in his swing, Schimpf makes sure he never gets cheated at the plate. And he wasn't on Friday night.
"He gets every last bit of who he is into the baseball," Green said. "He's going for broke, and he gets it done."