Fernando Tatis Jr. drives in go-ahead run as Padres outlast Cubs, even series
Fernando Tatis Jr. walked to the plate in the seventh inning, the teammates batting in front of him having done their job.
He knew he had not done his often enough. He knew the other superstars at the top of the lineup had not been coming through nearly enough either.
“Of course,” he said later. “It’s in the back of your head. You cannot block the sun with a finger.”
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And in that moment, in the bright light, Tatis may have returned for real.
His two-run single with one out in the seventh inning was the difference Wednesday night in a 5-3 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. His two-out single in the ninth drove in the Padres’ final run as well.
“It’s not a surprise,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said. “He seems to be one of those guys that is timely in those big spots.”
That has been true in Tatis’ career. But it hasn’t been the case much of this season for the men who are supposed to be shouldering the hefty burden of expectations on the Padres.
Tatis’ acknowledgment of that came in the form of his reaction to his hits. He raced to first base pumping his fists and yelling. And he didn’t stop until he had rounded the bag and returned to look toward the visitors dugout.
“It’s been such a long time and just bringing back emotion,” he said. “It’s been a kind of a rough start for us. Just pumping, just pushing. Being loud, being there with my teammates and just enjoying it.”
Tatis’ season is six games old. But that has been long enough for him to take things personally.
“People say we’re dogs,” he said Wednesday night. “But I don’t feel like we’re dogs. We’re (expletive) lions in the jungle. We’re (expletive) kings.”
The victory was the Padres’ fourth since Tatis returned from his 80-game PED suspension, and it got them back to .500 for the season.
Tatis’ hits were the only ones in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position in the two games so far in this series for him, Juan Soto and Manny Machado.
The top three batters in the Padres’ lineup are a combined 8-for-36 with runners in scoring position this season. Tatis is 2-for-4, Soto 1-for-12 and Machado 5-for-20.
That Soto is batting .178 with a .683 OPS and Machado .214 with a .536 OPS is arguably the biggest reason the Padres are not better than 13-13.
It can also be looked at another way:
What others are doing is why the Padres don’t have a worse record.
Tatis’ first hit followed a Ha-Seong Kim single, pinch-hit walk by Trent Grisham and a sacrifice bunt by No. 9 batter José Azocar that moved the two runners into scoring position. Tatis’ single off in the ninth drove in Kim, who singled, stole second base and went to third on a fly ball by Brett Sullivan.
In the fourth inning, a rally was once again started after the lineup passed the top three.
Clean-up hitter Xander Bogaerts followed outs by Soto and Machado with a single, and Nelson Cruz followed in kind before Jake Cronenworth lined a triple to the corner in right field to score them both and give the Padres a 2-0 lead.
The Cubs tied the game in the bottom of the fourth when Azocar could not get a good read in center field on what appeared to be a windblown bloop single by Seiya Suzuki that would have been the third out. Trey Mancini followed with a home run off Padres starter Michael Wacha.
A walk by Patrick Wisdom began the fifth inning, and Wisdom was running on a grounder to shortstop by Yan Gomes that might have otherwise turned into a double play. Instead, Bogaerts’ only play was at first. Wisdom went to third on a Nelson Velazquez’s grounder to the right side and scored the go-ahead run on Nico Hoerner’s single.
Nick Martinez, making his first relief appearance after four starts to begin the season, pitched three scoreless innings after replacing Wacha. Josh Hader got two quick outs in the ninth, allowed a two-out double by Yan Gomes and walked Nelson Velazquez before getting Hoerner on a pop out behind the plate to complete his major league-leading ninth save.
Tatis was as philosophical as he was bullish afterward as he spoke of the trying first 26 games and the 136 that are to come.
“This game will find a way to humble you no matter what,” he said. “… It’s up to us to keep finding the right way, our path. And I think we’re on that way.”
Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune
