Fernando

Tatis Jr.

Tatis Jr. hit his fourth home run of the playoffs so far. He crushed a pitch that was right down the middle from Walker Buehler in the second inning. Tatis Jr.'s home run capped a six-run second inning. He’s hitting .556 with a 1.969 OPS and seven RBI in 18 at-bats in the postseason so far.

Tatis homered and doubled off Jack Flaherty, whom he had already enjoyed great success again during the regular-season games, and then added another homer in the ninth after the game was decided. He’s an incredible 9-for-14 with three homers and two doubles in four postseason games.

The Padres aren’t making any changes to their regular lineup in the pivotal Game 1 matchup against Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Dodgers. The full lineup behind Dylan Cease for the Padres: DH Luis Arraez, RF Tatis Jr., LF Jurickson Profar, 3B Manny Machado, CF Jackson Merrill, SS Xander Bogaerts, 2B Jake Cronenworth, 1B Donovan Solano and Kyle Higashioka hitting ninth and catching.

Michael Harris II’s two-run homer in the eighth made things interesting, but the Braves couldn’t overcome a five-run second inning that produced all of San Diego’s runs. Tatis went 4-for-6 with a homer in the brief series, and he is now 11-for-28 with four homers and a 7/7 K/BB ratio in the postseason during his career. The Padres will move on to face the Dodgers in the NLDS.

Tatis hit a two-run shot off AJ Smith-Shawver in the first inning and the Padres were on their way to a 4-0 win in Game 1. San Diego has been one of the best teams in baseball since the start of June. Now the Padres are one win away from advancing to the Division series.

Tatis Jr. drew a walk in the first inning, then knocked a double in the third. He later slugged a solo homer in the fifth to tie the game. The 25-year-old star outfielder has hit 21 homers while slashing .282/.346/.505 with 64 runs scored, 49 RBI, and 10 steals across 425 plate appearances.

The Padres were down 2-1 entering the eighth before Donovan Solano and Luis Arraez both doubled. Arraez scored the go-ahead run on a sac fly from Jurickson Profar, and Tatis then expanded the lead with a 389-foot blast to left. It was Tatis’s 20th homer in 97 games this season. That falls way short of his 2021 pace, as he hit 42 in 130 games that season, but he has fared better than he did last year, when he totaled 25 in 141 games. He’s .499 slugging percentage is a full 50 points higher than his 2023 mark.

After the White Sox had a runner thrown out at home and failed to score in the top of the inning, Tatis lined the second pitch of the bottom of the inning into right-center to conclude the game. It was his only hit in five at-bats, but that’s just fine.

The home run was Tatis Jr.'s 19th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Kaleb Ort in the eighth inning. Tatis Jr. has been on fire recently. He’s 12-for-33 (.363) with five home runs and nine RBI in his last eight games. Tatis Jr. is hitting .282 with an .837 OPS and 46 RBI on the season.

Tatis Jr. began this game on the bench, but the 25-year-old came up huge with a solo shot in the eighth inning off Tyler Rogers. The 25-year-old star has been able to homer 18 times and drive in 45 runs despite missing significant time, and four of those homers have come in September.