TATIS GETTING NO RESULTS FOR GOOD ABS
It was pointed out to Fernando Tatis Jr. on Tuesday afternoon that he is in a slump.
“Supposedly,” he said, laughing before and after he did so.
Tatis entered that night’s game batting .119 (7-for-59) over his previous 14 games. He then went 0-for-4 in the Padres’ 2-0 loss to the Mariners.
In his second at-bat, he hit a ball that helps explain his slump and why he joked that it was merely theoretical.
Tatis crushed a ball a projected 410 feet at 108.7 mph only to watch Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez leap and make a catch at the top of the wall.
There have been just 19 longer outs in the major leagues this season.
“I don’t know,” Tatis said after the game. “I give up.”
And while it was the longest out of Tatis’ career, it has become the norm for him to hit a ball hard and long and get nothing from it.
It was the sixth ball in the past 15 games that Tatis has hit at least 379 feet that has been caught by a center fielder. The nine balls he has hit at least that far since July 23 are most in the majors. He is 3-for-9 with two home runs and a double on those balls.
Entering Wednesday, Kansas City’s Bobby Witt and the Padres’ Gary Sánchez both have hit eight balls that far since July 23. Witt is 6-for-8 with five homers and a triple, Sánchez is 7-for-8 with six homers and a double.
“I wish I had an answer,” Tatis said. “Just gotta keep going. That’s all I got. Grab your glove, go out there and play defense and come back up and have another good at-bat.”
Tatis does appear to be doing that.
His defense has not suffered. He continues to hit the ball hard. He is chasing pitches outside the zone at a higher rate than when he is going good, and he is perhaps jumping at some pitches in the zone he would be better served to let pass by but not as egregiously lately as he was earlier in his skid.
“I think he’s handled it beautifully,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Every day, he comes in positive. He doesn’t want anything to do with a day off. … His workload, playing basically every (game) after as long a time off as he was, I think it’s fantastic. He keeps himself in great condition. He’s positive every day.
“There are some at-bats where he gets a little antsy and wants to swing a little bit and hit his way out. But for the most part, he’s kind of doing it and just not getting any luck for it. Staying up the middle, staying the other way. Typically, you try to pull when you’re getting a little bit of a tough luck, but he’s not. He’s staying pretty disciplined in what he’s doing all the way around.”
Two years ago, when he hit a rough patch in September, he never really pulled out of it and was seen by coaches and some teammates as undone by his overt frustration. Now, in the midst of the worst 15-game stretch of his career, while the frustration is clearly visible, Tatis seems to be focusing on the right things.
“You just learn,” he said. “The more you are playing, the more you decide to pay attention. … Look at this way: I’m doing the right stuff for what the game is asking me to do. I’m just not getting the results. But you’re doing the good stuff. … Hopefully soon the game starts to reward you.”
Healing time
Joe Musgrove is optimistic. But he is committed to not pushing his comeback from the shoulder inflammation that has him sidelined for at least the next few weeks.
“I’m going to try to expedite it as much as possible,” he said. “But I’ve got one shot at getting this thing right and getting back to play this year. So If I push it and then I have to shut down again, there is no chance of throwing again (this season). So I’m going to be really smart about how I build back.”
The plan is for Musgrove to begin playing catch in a little more than two weeks and get another MRI at the end of August. Provided he feels good and the shoulder looks good in imaging, he would then begin a program that could get him back in the rotation by mid-September.
However, not only does he not want to short-circuit his ability to come back now, he has to be sure to not cause further damage in the shoulder capsule that could lead to what would be a major surgery.
Musgrove, who attributes the issue to not having what he called “a normal delivery” as he hurried to come back from a fractured toe and then pitched through various maladies all season, could hardly throw after his most recent start. His plan was to save his arm for his scheduled Aug. 2 start in
Colorado. But Melvin called him into his office and said that wasn’t going to happen.
Musgrove was confident he could simply skip a start and be back pitching here against the Mariners. But while imaging showed no structural damage, it showed inflammation in the capsule.
“I don’t feel very good,” Musgrove said, indicating his shoulder feels about the same as it did when he was shut down a week ago. “But a lot can happen in three weeks.”
As he spoke, Musgrove had just returned from running on the field. He has spent time in a hyperbaric chamber both days here, did so in San Diego last week and will also do so while the Padres are in Arizona the next few days.
“I’m doing everything I can to give myself the opportunity to heal,” he said. “The doctors seemed pretty optimistic that three weeks is a manageable amount of time to get it to a spot where you can avoid any surgeries or operations and just let it physically rest and get back to it. So trying to be religious with that and not push it a day sooner than three weeks, really give it the rest it needs.”