Like father, like son: Fernando Tatis Jr. mimics dad, powers Padres past Dodgers
Fernando Tatis was a pretty good ballplayer. He bounced among five major league teams. He never made an All-Star team. He was traded for the likes of Todd Stottlemyre and Dustin Hermanson.
But he earned the distinction of a career in one night, in a game not fondly remembered by Dodgers fans. On April 23, 1999, Tatis hit two grand slams in one inning at Dodger Stadium, both off Chan Ho Park.
Three months earlier, Tatis had welcomed a son into the family. The son was named Fernando Jr. He grew up to be a spectacularly good ballplayer, so good his signature is the one on the longest contract in baseball history.
And, 22 years to the day that the father stamped a signature moment upon Dodger Stadium, the son left his own mark here as well. Tatis Jr. did not hit two grand slams in one inning, but he did hit two home runs off Clayton Kershaw.
Never before in major league history had a father and son hit multiple home runs in the same ballpark on the same calendar date, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“I definitely knew this was the day,” Tatis said. “I told myself, just hit two home runs today. That would be so crazy.
“The baseball gods were in my favor.”
That was all the support Yu Darvish needed, as the San Diego Padres won the fifth of what Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner had called “19 World Series games” between the two National League heavyweights. With a 6-1 victory on Friday, the Padres lead the season series between the teams 3-2.
“It’s the biggest rivalry in baseball,” Tatis said. “Everybody can feel it. Everybody can see it.”
A Dodgers team hyped in this newspaper as “the best team in baseball history” started the season with 13 victories in 15 games. Since then, the Dodgers have lost four of five games.
They have gone an entire week without scoring more than three runs in a game. They have 23 hits in their last six games — according to ESPN, their lowest total in a six-game span since 1909, when the team was called the Brooklyn Superbas and finished 551/2 games out of first.
“No, I don’t think we’re pressing,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t think we’re there yet. I just think we’ve got to find a way to create baserunners and keep putting ourselves in position to drive runs in. If we do that, we’ll start scoring more.”
On Saturday, the Dodgers could fall into a first-place tie in the NL West. The San Francisco Giants are one game behind the Dodgers; the Padres trail the Dodgers by three.
The evening belonged to the villains. Tatis is one, and he was booed at a moderate level. Darvish, booed at a mild level, held the Dodgers to one run and four hits over seven innings, striking out nine. Mookie Betts doubled to lead off the first inning, and Darvish did not give up an extra-base hit the rest of the way. In each of his last three starts — two against the Dodgers — Darvish has pitched seven innings and given up one run. His earned-run average this season is 2.27.
And, just when even the Padres thought the Dodgers had Darvish on the ropes, the biggest villain of all saved him.
Closer Mark Melancon almost helped the Atlanta Braves knock off the Dodgers last year, and this year’s he’s trying again with the San Diego Padres.
Manny Machado got the loudest and most sustained boos, and chants not intended to boost his self-esteem. He got the ball out of the infield once in four at-bats, a single that flared into left field. He fouled out, struck out and grounded into a double play.
No matter. In the seventh inning, the Dodgers put the tying runs on base, with two out and Betts coming up. Padres manager Jayce Tingler appeared to be headed toward the mound.
Victor Caratini, Darvish’s personal catcher, waved to Tingler to stay put. Betts lined a screaming rocket that appeared bound for left field, but Machado leaped high to his left and intercepted it. Darvish reacted with glee, Betts with frustration.
The evening was over for Darvish and, soon enough, for the Dodgers. Yet the evening did not end before further trouble found the Dodgers: reliever Corey Knebel left the game because of injury after pitching to one batter in the ninth inning. The Padres added three runs in the inning off Dennis Santana.
Highlights from the Dodgers’ 6-1 loss to the San Diego Padres on Friday.
Knebel, acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers last winter, sat out the 2019 season after Tommy John surgery and has pitched only 19 1/3 innings since then. Roberts said Knebel had experienced discomfort in his upper triceps and would undergo tests Saturday.
Kershaw gave up three runs over seven innings — good, but not good enough on this night.
In his first four starts this season, he had not given up a home run. On this night, he gave up three. “Made some mistakes and they went over the fence,” Kershaw said. “That was kind of the difference in the game.”
In the second inning, Wil Myers homered, his first off Kershaw in 43 career at-bats. In the third, Tatis hit a home run that traveled 431 feet.
In the fifth, Tatis hit another home run, this one with an exit velocity of 115.9 mph — according to ESPN, the hardest ball hit off Kershaw since the start of such measurements in 2015.
“He did a good job of hitting the ball really hard,” Kershaw said.
“I have all the respect in the world for that guy,” Tatis said of Kershaw. “Totally blessed. We did it against a Hall of Famer.”
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