Tommy Pham’s explanation for offensive woes with Pirates is too little, too late

Tommy Pham put together what was arguably his best game as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.

The 37-year-old left fielder, who hadn't recorded an extra-base hit since April 26, went 3-for-3 with a pair of RBI doubles and a sacrifice fly to drive in three runs for the Pirates in their 8-3 win over the Texas Rangers.

That's the good news. The not-so-good news? Pham's three hits on Sunday exceeded his total of two hits through the entire month of June up to that point. Pham is slashing just .209/.289/.247, striking out in nearly 30% of his at-bats and still seeking his first home run of the season after he was supposedly brought in this season as the solution to the Pirates' lack of power hitting in the outfield.

When speaking about his 3-RBI performance on Sunday, Pham also addressed the elephant in the room and blamed his offensive struggles on his ongoing vision problems due to keratoconus, a condition that causes distorted and blurry vision, light sensitivity and other visual impairments.

“I don’t think it’s really mechanical,” Pham said (via Justin Guerriero of TRIBLive). “I think it was all visual for me. My prescription’s been off. I’ve been adjusting on the fly. … I’m telling you guys, it’s all visual. My contact situation’s been real complicated. So, we’re heading in a right direction, finally.”

Pham didn't elaborate as far as what exactly he did to get things back on track, but he feels optimistic that Sunday's performance was more than just a fluke.

“I’ve been making changes weekly,” he said. “So, I think we’re heading in the right direction now. I’m pretty optimistic going forward now, so I should get that first homer, hopefully.”

Tommy Pham’s explanation for offensive woes with Pirates is too little, too late

It's only been one game, but we might be more inclined to believe Pham's reason for optimism – or his explanation for his poor performance at the plate this season – if this was a new condition. But Pham was diagnosed with keratoconus in 2008, so why this is just becoming an issue now makes very little sense.

Perhaps Pham is right, and his problems are, in fact, visual. But there is a difference between poor pitch recognition and an actual visual impairment – and frankly, it's just sounding like a lot of excuse-making on Pham's part.

Then again, signing a blind left fielder to boost the offense the would be the most Pirates thing ever. So, there's likely plenty of blame to go around (looking at you, Ben Cherington).

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