Tommy Pham's revenge tour starts amid chorus of boos in San Diego

Tommy Pham spent two seasons with the Padres before joining the Cincinnati Reds this past offseason. But it wasn't as if the outfielder left on bad terms. Still, the fans in San Diego didn't see it that way and several boos emerged from the stands ar Petco Park when Pham stepped into the batters' box.

Maybe the audio folks back in Cincinnati need to pipe a chorus of boos throughout the sound system at Great American Ball Park because Pham got off the blocks in a hurry last night with a first inning home run and racked up two more base hits on the night. Pham fell just a triple shy of the cycle, and the Reds fell to the Friars by a score of 4-1.

Tommy Pham began his revenge tour began last night for the Reds.

Pham had a rough start to begin the 2022 season, going 1-for-26 in his first eight games with the Cincinnati Reds. In all fairness, Pham was a late signing this spring and missed the majority of Cactus League, seeing just 20 plate appearances in six games.

Pham bumped his average from a paltry .038 to a little more respectable .133. Obviously that's not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but it's better than Joey Votto's .105 batting average and it's certainly a step up from Mike Moustakas (.129) and Aristides Aquino (.067).

With as poorly as the Cincinnati Reds bats have been, Tommy Pham might have to go 3-for-4 every night just to scratch a run or two across. The Redlegs are 21st in home runs (8), 25th in runs scored (35), and dead-last in the majors in OPS (.541).

The Reds, to their credit, have faced a tremendous number of top-flight starting pitchers. Cincinnati has gone toe-to-toe with Max Fried, Charlie Morton, Shane Bieber, Walker Beuhler, Julio Urias, and Sean Manaea.

It was good to see Tommy Pham get off the mat in big way last night, but the rest of team is going to have to follow suit. Even with Pham going 3-for-4, the Reds only dented the plate once and struck out nine times. Amazingly, Aquino was not one of the Padres' strikeout victims last night. Votto, however, is now 1 for his last 28 at-bats with 14 punch outs.