TATIS BACK AND SWINGING
In the lineup for the first time in a week, Fernando Tatis Jr. reached into the ball bag and threw several souvenirs into the stands as he stretched before Friday’s game at Hohokam Stadium.
Moments later, he sent another souvenir toward the fans camped out on the grass berm in left-center.
Tatis was indeed feeling good again.
The 22-year-old phenom yanked the sixth slider Sergio Romo showed him over the wall to lead off Friday’s 5-4 loss to the Athletics, alleviating whatever concerns anyone had about the flu bug that kept Tatis from the lineup for a week.
The Padres, of course, never seemed all that concerned.
“For having a week off, he looks really good,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. “He was moving around well. He looks strong. It was a good day for him offensively and defensively.”
Tatis flied out in this second at-bat, singled to right in his third and exited for pinch-runner CJ Abrams in the top of the fifth.
He also fielded two balls cleanly at shortstop, although the first hit Chris Paddack allowed was a sharply hit single Tatis took a step back on and waved at before the ball skipped into right field.
The expectation is Tatis starts again today, so long as he reports in the morning in good health following his first game in a week.
It certainly looked like Tatis didn’t miss a beat, right on down to the clap of his hands as he walked out of the batters’ box and the slow jog around the bases after watching his second homer of the spring sail over the wall.
Tatis is 6-for-12 this spring.
“He’s doing Tatis things,” Paddack said. “… He’s out there being a kid … (and) having fun. I’m glad he’s on our team. Nothing like going out in the first and having a 1-0 lead.”
‘Some juice’
As the sky opened up in the latter innings Friday, General Manager A.J. Preller was among those scouting the game who took refuge refuge from the rain in the Hohokam Stadium press box. He was quite pleased with a certain shortstop. Well probably two
shortstops, but it was Abrams in particular who had Preller smiling as he passed through.
An inning earlier, the lefthanded-hitting Abrams, the Padres’ top position prospect, hit his first homer of the spring — on a line to left-center.
“He’s got some juice,” Preller said.
The thought echoed what many said of Abrams as he spent all summer last year at the Padres’ alternate site. Although a .647 slugging percentage in 2019 was certainly propped up by a .393 batting average — not to mention 12 doubles and eight triples — the Padres believed all along more power would be on the way after Abrams left the yard three times in 32 games in the rookie-level Arizona League.
Abrams is 5-for-21 this spring with five RBIs and three steals.
“That ball came off his bat really loud,” Tingler said of Abrams’ seventh-inning, three-run homer off Daulton Jefferies. “To be able to drive the ball like that, on a line-drive trajectory to leftcenter, it’s pretty impressive. Really nice day for our shortstops today.”
Grisham update
Trent Grisham expected to be sore when he walked through the clubhouse doors Friday morning.
The good news is he wasn’t as sore as he feared a day after exiting in the third inning of Thursday’s game with what Tingler said has been diagnosed as a Grade 1 left hamstring sprain.
The bad news, at least right now, isn’t all that bad.
“He was surprised he was feeling pretty good,” Tingler said. “We’re hoping it’s a couple days. If it’s a couple days, that’s great. If it’s a week, we feel pretty good it’s got a chance to be pretty mild.”
The Padres used Grisham’s absence on Friday to start Tommy Pham in center field for the first time this spring. If by chance the Padres’ Gold Glover — who twice landed on the injured list in 2016 in the minors with right hamstring strains — is not ready for opening day in less than three weeks, Tingler said Jurickson Profar likely would be the top everyday option in center field.
Paddack’s third
Paddack completed three innings for the first time this spring, throwing 28 of his 43 pitches for strikes. He struck out one, didn’t walk anyone and allowed a run on three hits, his first run of the spring after a pair of scoreless innings in each of his first two Cactus League games.
Friday’s run crossed the plate in the third inning after Chad Pinder’s leadoff double. Carlos Perez snuck a single through the right side of the infield and Tucupita Marcano, playing his first game in right field, missed the cutoff man on his throw to the plate, allowing Perez to move to second.
Paddack followed with three straight outs to stop the damage — Elvis Andrus’ fly ball to center, Jed Lowrie’s groundout to second and Matt Olson’s groundout to shortstop.
“Very pleased,” Paddack said. “That was something we talked about. … I thought I did an awesome job of being able to take a deep breath, not letting the game speed up on me and (executing) my pitches and the pitch at hand.”