TATIS EMBRACES A HOSTILE STADIUM
Truth be told, as hostile environments go, the Twins fans at Minneapolis’ Target Field were more interested in rolling out good, old-fashioned midwestern hospitality than razzing Fernando Tatis Jr.
The Padres’ 24-year-old superstar was anticipating something a bit more, shall we say colorful, on Friday night in right field at Chavez Ravine, Tatis’ first game at Dodger Stadium after serving his 80-game steroid suspension.
Fine.
No sweat off his back. “They were cheering me over there; it was a good time over there,” Tatis said with a smile of his welcome in Minnesota. “Like I’ve mentioned earlier, there’s a show. I’m over here to play baseball. The fans are going to enjoy it their way. I just hope they enjoy it.”
And yet Dodgers fans have not exactly enjoyed visits from Tatis, who entering Friday was a .302/.341/.628 hitter in his first 22 games here and had homered more times at Dodger Stadium (nine), more than any other stadium outside Petco Park.
Five of those blasts arrived in one series at Dodger Stadium in 2021, as he homered twice off Clayton Kershaw, twice off Trevor Bauer and once off Dustin May in consecutive games. Later that year, Tatis yanked a ball that bounced off the leftfield pavilion roof and out of the park, but that’s more about the uniform in the other dugout than seeing the ball especially well in Los Angeles.
“Just playing against this organization, against this team,” Tatis said. “… They’ve had a lot of success over the years, so there’s a lot of pride in that. When you’re playing good baseball, you just appreciate it and go out there and give it your best.”
And when you’re hearing all sorts of colorful things — the bleacher bums at Wrigley Field, remember, had Tatis dancing to their “He’s on steroids” chant last month — you find a way to make that work for you.
At least that’s how Tatis continues to approach his return.
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” he said. “It fuels me up. It definitely is going to give me way more energy. Let’s see how it comes out.”
Campusano’s setback
Luis Campusano on Friday underwent surgery to repair the source of continued discomfort in his sprained left thumb.
He had a tear in a ligament, and the surgery will sideline him a minimum of eight weeks. The possibility of resuming baseball activity before the eight-week mark will depend on how quickly Campusano heals.
The 24-year-old Campusano had been out since midApril but had begun swinging a bat on the last homestand. Actually catching the ball, however, had slowed his progression and ultimately led the Padres to take a closer look at his thumb.
“He gripped the bat OK; just couldn’t catch,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said. “Even when he was getting some soft toss, he was still getting some pain in there. We went in, looked a little deeper (during surgery) and there was a tear in the ligament, so went in and fixed it.”
Campusano’s setback means, for the time being, Brett Sullivan’s stay in the majors will last quite a bit longer. The 29-year-old rookie was called up for the first time last month when Campusano first sustained the sprain. He is hitting .208/ .240/.417 with one homer and is working himself into the catching rotation more frequently amid Austin Nola’s
struggles (.471 OPS).
Sullivan, for instance, on Friday caught Blake Snell
for a third straight time.
“It’s the best opportunity of his career,” Melvin said of Sullivan. “He’s at the bigleague level, he’s made an impact, he’s doing well. Probably as much fun as he’s had playing baseball in his life.”
Notable
LHP Ryan Weathers will be recalled from Triple-A El Paso to start Sunday’s finale at Dodger Stadium, pushing RHP Michael Wacha back a day to start the first game of the Royals series at Petco Park. The Padres are in the midst of playing nine straight days and had circled this portion of the calendar as an opportunity to revert to a six-man rotation at least temporarily. Weathers threw four shutout innings on Tuesday for El Paso and will be on four days’ rest.
• The right triceps tightness that forced RHP Yu Dar vish out of Thursday’s game after just 80 pitches was not a concern as Darvish reported to the ballpark Friday. With Weathers slotting in Sunday, Darvish will get an extra day of rest before starting Wednesday’s series finale against the Royals at Petco Park.
• Bench coach Ryan Christenson was away from the team Friday to attend his daughter’s college graduation. Senior adviser Bryan Price served as bench coach in Christenson’s place.
• OF David Dahl (quad) began a rehab assignment on Friday at Triple-A El Paso.