WASHINGTON _ Greg Garcia is really good at not playing.
No, really. That is a compliment of the highest order.
Several of the Padres coaches, including manager Andy Green, were utility players at some point in the major league playing careers. To a man, they say it is the hardest thing in the game to do well.
Garcia does it well and attacks it with fervor.
He started the season's fourth game and hadn't been in the starting lineup since, until he started in Sunday's extra-inning loss to the Nationals, where he homered in the first inning and scored another run in the third.
It's what Garcia does. He made his major league debut in April 2014 and has three years, 84 days of big-league service time. In that span, he has 880 plate appearances. Or 69 more than Manny Machado has since the start of last season.
"Getting four at-bats a game will be great," Garcia said earlier this week. "... Early on, with all these (scheduled) days off, you want to keep the guys going. I get that part. You want to have those everyday players. I understand the importance of a guy like me _ to spell whoever needs a day, because those guys are working so hard."
The least-used Padres batter, who is not at all ironically among the team's strongest fundamental batters, is passionate about his role. It comes out in everything he says about his role and how he goes about his role and how he helps teammates when they have to imitate his role.
The kid from East County, a 2007 graduate of Valhalla High, has come home to be what he is supposed to be, all he's ever been in the big leagues.
He has four hits and three walks and has played 17 1/3 innings in the field.
"The numbers are the numbers," Garcia said. "I don't care about that. I want to help this team win. I'm not going to be an All-Star. I'm not going to be a Hall of Famer. I want to win. I want to win for this city and win for this team, and we have a chance to do it."
Garcia, who was claimed off waivers from the Cardinals in November, is familiar with the accomplishments of all the top utility players in the game. In particular, he learned from Daniel Descalso, who spent the first half of what is now 10 major league seasons in St. Louis.
"Guy is a world champion, man," Garcia said, referring to the ring Descalso won as a member of the Cardinals in 2011. "Did he play every day? No. But he came up with some big hits for that team. It takes role players accepting their roles and doing it to the best of their ability."
So Garcia goes about treating batting practice like a game, taking grounders and running the bases and locking in for his swings.
He attempts to manage along with Green so he can anticipate when he might bat, get into the cage to face pitches off what they call the velo machine and get ready to enter as ready as possible to go from zero to facing a fastball likely traveling upwards of 95 mph. He's generally not bat against starting pitchers. He gets the tough right-handed relievers.
That's why a true utility player/pinch-hitter is judged over the long haul more by what his at-bats look like than how they end up. Garcia has two doubles and two singles. Moreover, he has chased just 27.5 percent of the pitches he has seen outside the strike zone.
His lead-off walk in the eighth inning Saturday after entering the game at second base as part of a double switch in the bottom of the seventh and his sacrifice fly in the 10th inning came after he worked the count full for the 11th time in his 22 plate appearances.
"I can't put too much pressure on each at-bat," Garcia said. "It's definitely a role you're going to fail in. I've learned over the years, you can't get frustrated with it. You have to go up there every time and try to take a good at-bat. That all you can do. A lot of that is in my control. I don't swing at bad pitches, try to put the ball in play."
He spends time talking with teammates, young and older, about the same.
After Wil Myers' pinch-hit home run on April 2, he talked about Garcia helping him prepare to come off the bench. And Ty France not only got advice from Garcia on Friday night before his pinch-hit single in his first major league at-bat, he has been under Garcia's wing since the spring.
"He was all about it," France said. "He was like, 'Hey, man, I've been a bench guy. If you're going to play with us, you'll probably be a bat off the bench.' He was very open right away. He said, 'Just follow me around. If you need anything, I'm here for you.' Incredible guy ... he loves the game, loves what he does and is great at what he does."
