SAN DIEGO — A packed home of Padres followers at Petco Park chanted “Beat L.A.” on the high of their lungs throughout Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Tuesday night time. Several gamers heeded that decision throughout an enormous 6-5 victory over the Dodgers to take a 2-1 collection lead and be a win away from advancing to the following spherical.
But it was the most recent sprint of postseason magic from Fernando Tatis Jr. that put the exclamation level on the six-run second inning. Tatis hit one other towering home run that despatched the ballpark-record crowd of 47,744 followers right into a frenzy.
“Obviously, Fernando is kind of putting it on his back right now. That’s something special to witness, to see,” shortstop Xander Bogaerts mentioned.
San Diego had the bottom strikeout price and highest contact price in baseball throughout the common season. By placing the ball in play in the underside of the second, the Padres created some havoc that the Dodgers couldn't cease.
After the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the primary inning, the Padres rallied with their first 4 runs coming towards Walker Buehler in a wide range of methods — beginning with a wise baserunning play by Manny Machado to interrupt up a would-be double play.
“Manny has one of the best IQs in the game, and we put it all in play together at the right moment,” Tatis mentioned.
With two outs, Tatis lifted Buehler's 0-2 fastball excessive and deep to left subject. He spent a number of moments watching it fly a Statcast-projected 396 toes.
As the ball landed in the seats to make it a 6-1 recreation, Tatis chucked his bat and motioned towards the Padres’ dugout. Then he took his time rounding the bases together with his signature hop-step earlier than reaching third base.
Meanwhile, the gang noise remained deafening.
“Definitely on the noise, that has to be up there,” Tatis mentioned. “And, man, once I hit it, I do not know, I simply blacked out, began screaming at my dugout, simply the power by way of the roof, particularly that kind of inning that we constructed after two outs.
“It was just momentum and just definitely a beautiful finish at the end of that inning.”
After the inning, Buehler snapped contained in the Dodgers' dugout and threw his hat and a rubbish can.
“I thought obviously the pitch to Tatis was a bad pitch,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned. “But I think leading up to that, there were just balls that we just didn't convert into outs. And it builds the stress in the inning.”
The massive inning proved essential when Los Angeles answered with 4 runs in the third inning to drag inside a run.
“We come up one run short. And I gave up the homer to Tatis,” Buehler mentioned. “There was a bunch of mayhem, and then I made a bad 0-2 pitch, and he kind of does what he does.”
In 5 video games this postseason, Tatis is 10-for-18 (.556) with 4 homers. His 1.969 OPS could be the best in a single postseason with a minimal of 20 plate appearances. He is tied with Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn (1998) for essentially the most hits by a Padre in a five-game span in the postseason.
All of this comes after a difficult common season. He performed damage for a lot of the primary half, then missed 2 1/2 months with a stress response in his proper femur. In 102 video games, he batted .276 with an .832 OPS and 21 homers.
“When you play baseball like this in the postseason, you get all those memories back,” Tatis mentioned. “You just feel grateful where you're at. And just embracing every single moment and definitely not taking it for granted.”
For his postseason profession, Tatis is 17-for-40 (.425) with six homers. The solely gamers with extra homers in their first 11 postseason video games are Carlos Beltrán with eight whereas Daniel Murphy, B.J. Upton and Nomar Garciaparra every have seven. Tatis additionally has 5 homers lifetime vs. Buehler over the common season and postseason mixed.
“It's been awesome, man,” Machado mentioned of Tatis. “I've seen him enough to know he shines when he needs to, and what he's doing at the plate has been unbelievable. … He doesn't shy away from the moment. He rises above it.”
