Wolters making most of batting eighth

SAN DIEGO -- Even as the Rockies fight downward momentum as a team, individual players continue to work on their games, doing what they can to sharpen their skills or develop new ones.

Catcher Tony Wolters is one who has made marked progress throughout the season. He bats in the most challenging spot in the order, the No. 8 hole, and he entered Friday ranked first among National League No. 8 hitters with a .287 batting average from that spot. That’s a career-best split for Wolters and a huge leap forward from the .166 mark he had while batting eighth last season.

The unique challenge of batting eighth in National League games, of course, is that the pitcher’s spot is next. Opponents’ pitching strategy varies greatly, depending on the game situation. They might attack you aggressively, or they might try to get you to chase balls without concern of a walk with a pitcher up next.

“It’s kind of weird because you never know how you’re going to get pitched,” said Wolters, who’s primarily been a No. 8 batter throughout his four big league seasons. “Sometimes, you’ll get a fastball right down the middle, and it’s like, ‘I haven’t seen that in a week.’ Sometimes, you don’t get a lot of pitches to swing at, so you can’t miss your pitches.”

Wolters’ overall strikeout rate of 15.8 percent is about the same as last season, when it was 15.3 percent. But he has more than doubled his hits total (31 to 73) and has surpassed his total of extra-base hits (11 to 17). One big area of improvement is how he’s handling fastballs -- .197 on such pitches in 2018 and .329 in 2019, per Statcast.

One might think Wolters’ experience calling a game would help him identify how he’s being pitch to, but he says he tries to keep his catcher mindset out of the batter’s box.

“I try to use my eyes,” he said. “I need to lock into my area, and that’s it.”

Wolters has a 71 OPS+ and one home run, going into Friday's game against the Padres, so he’s not Gary Sanchez. But as a No. 8 hitter, he’s being asked to turn the lineup over as often as possible. If Charlie Blackmon leads off an inning after the first, there’s a good chance Wolters helped make that happen.

“Even in those at-bats where it looks like Tony’s being pitched around, he still can identify a good pitch to swing at,” manager Bud Black said. “He’s done a really good job of pitch selection. He hasn’t expanded the zone a lot.

“With him, on the coaching side, we’re proud of the turnaround he’s made in staying true to his approach, not tinkering a lot with his stance, with his hands, with his setup. He’s stayed pretty consistent with his plan, and I think that’s helped him in the No. 8 spot.”

The Bill Walton experience

The most memorable moment of the series opener Thursday actually came before the game started. Basketball legend Bill Walton threw not one, but two first pitches and then joined Black at home plate for the lineup exchange.

Thursday’s game started four minutes late because of Walton’s conversation with the umpires. A day later, Black revealed what was on Walton’s mind.

“He was talking about how big of a Padres fan he was -- Rockies No. 2,” Black said. “He was complimenting the umpires a lot, the job they do, having a tough job, being an unbiased arbiter. He kept talking, man. It was great.”

Notable

• Garrett Hampson, Raimel Tapia and Yonathan Daza have gotten two starts each in center field since David Dahl went to the injured list with a high right ankle sprain.

“We’re going to look at matchups, and we’re going to keep guys in there to keep them current,” Black said.

• Right-handed reliever Carlos Estevez, on the family emergency medical leave list, has not rejoined the team, but he threw a bullpen session in Denver on Friday to stay sharp.