As Fernando Tatis Jr. goes, so go the San Diego Padres.
Tatis and the Padres will look to stay hot on Wednesday afternoon when they visit the New York Mets in the finale of a three-game series.
Michael King (8-8, 3.41 ERA) will start for San Diego against fellow right-hander Robert Stock (0-2, 6.57) of New York.
Tatis homered twice and robbed Francisco Lindor of a grand slam in the Padres’ 5-2 victory over the Mets on Tuesday.
Tatis homered on Zac Thornton’s first pitch of the game before he preserved the lead in the second inning when he snared Lindor’s fly ball, which was heading beyond the orange home-run line.
Defense hasn’t been an issue this season for Tatis, a two-time Platinum Glove winner in right field. But the two homers extended his nearly three-month resurgence at the plate.
Tatis has 15 home runs since May 30, when he snapped his season-opening, 55-game drought by finally going deep. He hit .268 with seven extra-base hits and a .652 OPS in those first 55 games and is batting .289 with 35 extra-base hits and an .885 OPS in his last 70 games.
The rest of San Diego’s lineup has rebounded along with Tatis, who has a .280 batting average and 60 RBIs for the season. The Padres were tied for 26th in the majors with 221 runs through May 29 but since have scored 320 and have won eight of their past 10 games.
“I think it was unfortunate that was the very beginning of the season,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “That type of slump happens in the middle of the year, we all say, ‘Well that’s just a slump in the middle of the year.’ But it happened to be at the beginning of the season. It just shows that he can overcome about anything.”
The Mets likely won’t be able to overcome their 10-21 start, which included a 12-game losing streak. New York is 10-4 in its last 14 games but remains in last place in the National League East.
Tatis’ impressive all-around play helped halt a four-game winning streak for the Mets.
New York was held to two runs or less for the second straight night — they eked out a 2-1 win Monday — and for the 47th time this season. That is second-most in the majors, behind the Los Angeles Angels.
“Put two good swings on, started the game off (by homering),” Mets interim manager Andy Green said about Tatis. “I think there’s probably enough superlatives that have already been thrown out at the robbed home run.”
King earned the win in his most recent start on Friday, when he allowed four runs (three earned) over six innings in the Padres’ 7-5 victory over the Cleveland Guardians. King is 0-3 with a 5.54 ERA and one save in eight career games (four starts) against the Mets.
Stock didn’t factor into the decision Friday after giving up an unearned run over 4 1/3 innings in New York’s 4-1 win over Washington.
He has never opposed the Padres, with whom he opened his big-league career by making 42 relief appearances from 2018-19.
–Field Level Media
