2:49 AM ET
Jeff PassanESPN
CloseESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of one of the most Valuable Commodity in Sports”
Youre taking a look at the wrong thing.
Its reasonable. A bat goes flying in the air, end over end, moved into the night in a fit of passion, and it inevitably draws every eye laid upon it. There is something magnetic about a bat flip, and the one Fernando Tatis Jr. unleashed Thursday night– the night he introduced himself to baseballs postseason with his trademark vitality– was exuding with polarity.
After seeing it once or twice or 500 times– any number is acceptable, honestly– ensure to check the profile. And at the very first half-flip or two of the 3 1/2 revolutions of the bats ultimate journey, pause it, slow it down, scrub it at quarter speed.
Considering that he was a kid, Fernando Tatis Jr. has lived to play. This year, the video game requires him just as much as he requires it. Jeff Passan ”
Look at Fernando Tatis Jr.s eyes.
For somebody so jolly, so complete of joie de vivre that its virtually contagious, there is another side of Tatis. It rarely reveals itself. He saves it for when he requires it.
And as Tatis San Diego Padres teetered on the verge of postseason elimination Thursday, out came the severe side of him– the brooding one, beaming strength, flirting with anger. This bat turn wasnt an expression of happiness as much as a flying billboard to his teammates at whom he cast his glimpse. This, he was stating, is what we must be.
The Padres 11-9 success over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 2 of their wild-card series highlighted not simply what they needed to be however what theyre capable of being as they get ready for a win-or-go-home Game 3 on Friday at 7 p.m. ET. Down their 2 finest starting pitchers since of injuries, working bullpen games because of their replacements ineffectiveness, the Padres– the darlings of baseball, in no little part because of Tatis, their 21-year-old shortstop– tracked by 4 runs in the sixth inning when Tatis swaggered to the plate.
For more than 3 weeks, he had actually discovered himself in a desperate slump. Over the last 20 days of the season, Tatis struck.164/.242/.291, lost 125 points off his OPS and provided away the NL MVP award. He was annoyed, browsing– and leaving 10 men on base over the very first game-and-a-half of his very first postseason wasnt helping matters.
1 RelatedThen Giovanny Gallegos threw five successive sliders to Tatis, and he did not miss the fifth. It skyrocketed over the left-field wall, cutting a 6-2 deficit to 6-5. A batter later, Manny Machado took Gallegos deep to connect the score. An inning later on, Wil Myers homered to put the Padres ahead by a run. Up came Tatis again, this time facing Daniel Ponce de Leon. Like Gallegos, he was in love with one pitch. Tatis saw fastball after fastball: two inside, one low and away, two over the plate to take the count full. The sixth was the finest pitch of all: 97 miles per hour on the outdoors corner– murder on most players.
Tatis blasted it to the opposite field. Its those latter two that Tatis hardly ever shows, or at least that get overwhelmed by his omnipresent smile and easy laugh. Tatis represents so numerous of the excellent things about modern-day baseball, including a deep desire to win.
” Were in the playoffs,” he stated. “The game was refrained from doing. The job was refrained from doing.”
As he looked– as the bat twirled in the air– San Diegos dugout shook with enjoyment. The first home run woke up the Padres. Machados rejuvenated them. Myers felt inevitable. Tatis second worked as a pointer. Myers 2nd made history.
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Just when before had colleagues homered two times in the same postseason game. It happened in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series. The teammates were Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
” To be in the record books with those guys,” Tatis stated, “youre doing something right.”
This better resembled the Padres who looked like the second-best team in baseball behind their division rivals and the group theyll face if they beat St. Louis on Friday, the Los Angeles Dodgers. This is where Tatis plays nucleus and whatever around him quivers with energy.
Only as soon as before, Tatis stated, has he unburdened his hands of a bat with such excellent propulsion. It came throughout the Dominican Winter League, when he was playing for Estrellas de Oriente, his home town group– and one handled by his daddy, the long time big league third baseman Fernando Tatis. Estrellas were continuous losers. The Tatis family appeared and they began winning. In a late-season game, daddy asked child to bunt. He mishandled two attempts. On the third pitch, he pummeled a ball over the left-field fence. Practically immediately, Tatis flung the bat in the air granny-style– two-handed with an upward movement that sent it so high it might not have actually landed.
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That a person didnt come with the look. Its why for whatever Thursdays might do not have in elevation, it makes up for in emotion. It drew instant comparisons to Jose Bautistas infamous division series turn, and actually, that deserves more credence than the gut response that places Bautistas atop an unscalable mountain. Due to the fact that as much as Bautistas flip has to do with the flip, yes, what truly makes it– what separates it– is his face. Bautistas stare might melt tungsten. Its fleeting. A flash and after that gone.
Tatis remained. He glared into the dugout. He saw his colleagues. He desired to guarantee they all saw him. Gravity pulled the bat back to earth. His look was bound by no such laws. It inscribed itself on everyone wearing a Padres uniform. His vibe, his soigne, whatever that the world sees and gloms onto and uses as factors that Tatis is so adorable– thats fine, thats what he desires, thats what baseball requirements. But this minute, this mien. It is impossible to forget.
That, they now understand, is who Fernando Tatis Jr. is. They knew it in the past, too, but a baseball gamers full breadth is never clear till he reaches the postseason, sees the World Series prize within sight and casts his lot. This cast went to left field, went to best field, went into the dugout of a team prepared to ride its star, and it goes to Game 3, winner take all, with every eye certain to be trained on a 21-year-old who truly is that turning good.
There is something magnetic about a bat flip, and the one Fernando Tatis Jr. unleashed Thursday night– the night he presented himself to baseballs postseason with his hallmark vitality– was exuding with polarity.
And as Tatis San Diego Padres teetered on the brink of postseason removal Thursday, out came the severe side of him– the brooding one, beaming strength, flirting with anger. Only as soon as before, Tatis said, has he unburdened his hands of a bat with such fantastic propulsion. It came throughout the Dominican Winter League, when he was playing for Estrellas de Oriente, his home town group– and one managed by his dad, the longtime big league third baseman Fernando Tatis. Almost instantly, Tatis flung the bat in the air granny-style– two-handed with an upward movement that sent it so high it might not have landed.
