I know it’s a team game. I say that all the time, I believe that all the time. But every once in a while a guy has a night where that doesn’t really apply, and Fernando Tatis Jr. had one of those nights against the Mets. Padres won 5-2, and I don’t think that game happens without him. Not like this.
He didn’t wait around, either. First inning, leadoff, 452 feet to left center. That’s not a normal home run, that’s a statement.
Then the second inning happens, and honestly the home runs almost become the secondary story. Lindor’s up, bases loaded, and he hits a ball out toward the right field corner that looks gone the second it leaves the bat. Grand slam, no question about it, everybody in the building already knows it. Fernando closes on that wall near the 330 mark and leaps and takes it away. Hat flying off and everything. That’s not a web gem, that’s a man reaching into the stands and pulling four runs back out of the Mets’ hands.
This is the part of Tatis’s game that I don’t think gets talked about enough when people are just looking at the box score. He already has two Gold Gloves and two Platinum Gloves, 2023 and 2025 both, and last year he led every right fielder in the National League in defensive runs saved. Robbing home runs isn’t a once-a-season highlight for him anymore, it’s basically part of the scouting report. Pitchers throw up in that zone knowing he might just take it back. And if he keeps playing right field like this, that third Platinum Glove isn’t a maybe, it’s a matter of time.
So he takes a grand slam away in the second, and then in the fifth inning he decides he’s not done hitting either. Two-run shot to right center, 379 feet, Cronenworth comes around to score with him. That’s his second homer of the night to go with the robbery, and at that point you’re just watching to see what else he’s going to do.
Final line: 2-for-5, two home runs, three RBIs, and a grand slam taken off the board that never even shows up in a box score. Padres win 5-2, and I know Robbie Ray battled through five and the bullpen held it down and this is still a team sport, I know that. But some nights one guy is just the whole story, and tonight that guy was Fernando Tatis Jr.
