The Padres have been waiting for Fernando Tatis Jr. to come through offensively, and he's sticking with his process.
The San Diego Padres are still trying to overcome their rough start, and their superstars have been a major issues of far. Fernando Tatis Jr. has been struggling to get over the Mendoza line, but he knows he can’t let his struggles get him off his game.
Saturday’s 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox was a prime example of how this works. Tatis looked miserable while striking at four times, and his batting average was sitting at .172 when he came to the plate in the ninth against dominant Boston closer Aroldis Chapman.
Even worse, Tatis was down in the count. Being behind 1-2 against Chapman is normally a quick ticket to a seat on the bench, but Tatis had other things in mind, fouling off a pitch at the top of the zone, then laying off a splitter that was a ball. That got Tatis a belt-high fastball, and he knew what to do with the pitch.
“I always know,” Tatis said in a piece written by AJ Cassavell of MLB.com, “I just need one swing to change the game.”
Tatis belted the pitch over the head of Red Sox center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela for a double, and moments later he came home on a single by Ramon Laureano. Laureano’s hit wound up being the game-winner, and Tatis got to celebrate.
“That’s the best part of baseball,” Tatis said. “You just never know. That’s why there’s 27 outs to be played.”
Part of the problem is that Tatis is an emotional player in a game that’s not suited to wild emotional swings. When he’s going poorly things can look especially bad as a result, and changing that is still a work in progress for Tatis.
“It’s not easy,” Tatis said. “It’s something I learned a long time ago -- learned how to stick with a process. I had to learn how to mature, how to stay in the game, stay locked in, play defense, change the game playing defense. You’ve just got to stay in the game, not only for yourself, but for the rest of the team, out there competing.”
Tatis is also a game-changer defensively, and he knows he can’t allow that to change, regardless of how much he’s struggling at the plate. He made a great running catch in right center to rob Willson Contreras of an extra base hit in the sixth inning on Saturday, and moments like that are often more valuable than a big hit in the context of a given game.
Manager Craig Stammen understands that. Tatis’ catch allowed starter Randy Vasquez to stay in the game, and that helped preserve the bullpen, according to Cassavell.
“He can impact the game in many different ways,” Stammen said. “He’s not taking his at-bats out to right field. He’s still locked in and knows that he can make a game-saving play anywhere that he is on the field.”
Tatis had a double on Sunday, which means a turnaround could be coming. The Padres face Bubba Chandler on the mound tonight against the Pittsburgh Pirates, then Paul Skenes tomorrow, so it’s not going to get any easier going forward.