SAN DIEGO – David Ortiz, that was Xander Bogaerts’ comp for Fernando Tatis Jr.
For Bogaerts, it was a legitimate frame of reference. His rookie season with the Boston Red Sox was 2013, the year in which Ortiz won World Series MVP.
In 85 postseason games, Ortiz was a career .289 hitter with a .947 OPS. Tatis, 25, obviously has a long way to go to match Big Papi. But his performance in his first postseason before fans has been nothing short of electrifying, a vivid reminder of the player Tatis was when he first entered the majors, and can be for the majority if not the entirety of his contract, which extends through 2034.
“David did it a long time,” Bogaerts said Tuesday night after the San Diego Padres moved within one game of the National League Championship Series with a 6-5 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. “But for how young (Tatis) is, you don’t see many people doing what he’s doing right now. He’s really putting us on his back right now. It’s special to see.”
Tatis’ only previous appearance in the postseason was in 2020, when fans were not allowed inside ballparks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was terrific in the wild-card round, but largely ineffective in the Padres’ Division Series loss to the Dodgers. But that October was not one anyone cares to remember.
This October, playing in packed ballparks both at home and on the road, Tatis is elevating his game beyond where it was even during his resurgent regular season. More than most players, he thrives in these moments. And it shows. Man, does it show.
In five games this postseason, Tatis is 10-for-18 with four homers, including his two-run shot that capped off the Padres’ six-run second inning Tuesday night. In the first three innings alone, he is an astonishing 7-for-8 with three homers. The games in the Division Series, in particular, resemble heavyweight fights. And Tatis is providing early knockout blows. Shohei Ohtani has struck out six times, Tatis none.
FERNANDO. TATIS. JR. 🤩 #NLDS pic.twitter.com/DbwB6Q0TPJ
— MLB (@MLB) October 9, 2024
Tatis waited a long time for this. Injuries cost him time in four of his last five full seasons. His 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs spanned 2022, when the Padres advanced to the NLCS, and ‘23. It’s difficult to say Tatis has pent-up energy when he’s always bursting with energy. But now, he’s playing as if on a pogo stick, bounding from one achievement to another.
“It’s just beautiful,” Tatis said. “Definitely rewarding through everything I’ve been through, through what we’ve been through as a group. Building together to get over here is just really, really hard work from the front office, from the players, getting involved, putting their heart into it.
“And, man, when you play baseball like this in the postseason, you get all those memories back. You just feel grateful where you’re at. And just embracing every single moment and definitely not taking it for granted.”
Tatis has spoken in the past about his experience playing winter ball in his native Dominican Republic, how it brought the best out of him. The Padres, with 47,744 in attendance on Tuesday night, set a Petco Park record. The atmosphere surely was different than when Tatis plays for the Estrellas Orientales, his team in the Dominican. But the noise was thunderous during the Padres’ six-run second, and after every big out their relievers secured. And when Tom DeLonge of blink-182 led the crowd in an “All the Small Things” singalong late in the game, it was a scene like no other in Major League Baseball.
It was winter ball, only with different music and a whole lot more people.
“I feed off that type of energy,” Tatis said. “When the fans are coming, meaningful games, you leave everything you have out there. I feel like I just take it to another level of my mindset, my body, just everything is just through the roof.”
He finished fourth in the National League MVP voting in 2020 and third in 2021. After returning from his suspension, he played in 141 games last season and performed well enough to win a Gold Glove in right field – a new position – and finish 14th in the MVP vote. That season, though, was not quite to his earlier standards. This one was better statistically, but interrupted by a right femoral stress reaction that sidelined him from June 24 to Sept. 2.
Tatis hit seven home runs in September, providing a launching point for his spectacular October. He isn’t simply excelling on the offensive end, either. In Game 2, he went into a full sprint to make a leaping backhand catch and rob Freddie Freeman of extra bases.
His teammates marvel not just at his five-tool talent, but also his attention to the little things – for example, hitting the cutoff man to prevent a runner from taking an extra base. Still, it’s his home runs that are providing the biggest impact. He has crushed three in this series against the Dodgers, a team against which father, Fernando Tatis Sr., once hit two grand slams in an inning.
“Definitely embrace that,” Tatis Jr. said. “Those were definitely the first steps. My dad started everything. He was my mentor. He brought me to this game. He showed me what this game really meant for so many people in the United States, all around the world.
“Me as a kid growing up, I just wanted to follow my dad’s steps. I wanted to be like him and even better. Probably making it right now but still have a long way to go. But definitely Pops started that. I feel like that’s in our DNA . . . And, man, it’s great that your dad did it and you’re also doing it probably even better.”
Senior was a good player, but appeared in only one postseason series, with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2000. Junior is making up not only for his own lost time, but his father’s, too. He is Fernando in Full, the best player on the field. If he’s not David Ortiz yet, well, maybe just give him time.
(Top photo of Fernando Tatis Jr.: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
