Fernando Tatis Jr. is a two-time Platinum Glove Award-winning right fielder, which is why his error on Friday night was inexplicable. Tatis Jr. misplayed a groundball off the bat of JJ Weatherholt with the bases loaded and it resulted in a Little League grand slam that put the St. Louis Cardinals ahead of the San Diego Padres, 4-0. It was evident Tatis Jr. was trying to field the ball in an effort to make a throw toward the infield in order to limit the number of runs scored on the play. Instead,
the ball rolled under his glove and continued to roll until it reached the base of the right field wall. It was not something any fan of the Padres expected to see, and it may be the first sign that his struggles at the plate are affecting his play in the field. San Diego never threatened to get back in the game and lost the second game of the series to St. Louis, 6-0.
As bad as the error was by Tatis Jr. the team performance at the plate was worse. The Padres were held to one hit over nine innings of baseball. A lineup that included Jackson Merrill, Xander Bogaerts, Manny Machado, Gavin Sheets and Tatis Jr. in the top five batters was held to a single hit, which came off the bat of Merrill in the bottom of the fourth inning. That was the only inning San Diego threatened to score. After the leadoff single, Bogaerts and Machado hit back-to-back groundouts. Sheets and Tatis Jr. walked to load the bases, but Miguel Andujar grounded out to end the inning and the St. Louis pitching shutdown the Padres for the remainder of the game.
Griffin Canning was on the receiving end of the Tatis Jr. error and was charged with six runs over 4.1 innings pitched. He allowed seven hits, walked two and struck out five. Yuki Matsui, Wandy Peralta and Ron Marinaccio combined to work the final 4.2 innings and allowed just four hits and no walks, while keeping the Cardinals off the board.
San Diego only drew the two walks in the bottom of the fourth inning but struck out a combined 10 times while being held to one hit. The Padres will try to put the embarrassing loss behind them today in the third game of the series against the Cardinals at Petco Park at 4:15 p.m.
Padres News:
- The Padres are just like any other team in MLB and have started to incur injuries to position players. Jake Cronenworth (concussion) and Luis Campusano (fractured toe) were both placed on the injured list this week, which created opportunities for Sung-Mun Song and Rodolfo Duran.
- Jase Bowen added two more home runs to his season total with a standout performance for the El Paso Chihuahuas.
- San Diego pitching prospect Humberto Cruz pleaded guilty to transporting undocumented immigrants within the United States and will have his work visa revoked for up to 10 years.
Baseball News:
- Jacob Misiorowski had a dominant outing and helped the Milwaukee Brewers get a 6-0 win over the New York Yankees.
- The Chicago Cubs may never lose again – not really. But they did win their 10th game in a row with a 7-1 win over the Texas Rangers.
- Munetaka Murakami hit a home run in the first game of the series between the Chicago White Sox and the Seattle Mariners. He has homered in the first game of each series Chicago has played this season. However Seattle won the game, 12-8.
- Freddie Freeman hit his 100th home run as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers and helped his team defeat the Atlanta Braves, 3-1.
- Dylan Cease is adjusting quite well with the Toronto Blue Jays and recorded 10 strikeouts in seven innings to lead his new team to a 2-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
- The New York Mets got a strong start from Nolan McLean and were able to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in extra innings.
- Robby Snelling made his MLB debut with the Miami Marlins, but his day was spoiled by the Washington Nationals who got a 3-2 win.
