For those who thought the San Diego Padres would fade in the final month of the season, you were sorely mistaken. After sweeping the Giants in convincing fashion over the weekend, the Padres have won six out of their last 10 games and have a healthy 3.5-game cushion in the NL Wild Card race. One reason they’ve been able to keep rolling along has been Fernando Tatis Jr., whose return has given San Diego a nice jolt.
There was some concern that Tatis Jr. would be rusty even though everyone knows when he’s right, Tatis Jr. is the type of guy that can make good teams great. Missing the amount of time Tatis Jr. did is no joke and his injury was weird enough that Padres fans didn’t really know what he would look like the rest of this season.
Fortunately, Tatis Jr. has acted swiftly to soothe those concerns and has made a big difference right from the get-go.
Tatis Jr.’s return to Padres may make them MLB’s most complete team in baseball
It is abundantly clear at this point that Tatis Jr. is very healthy and looking to be a big contributor towards the Padres’ playoff aspirations. Since coming back on September 2, he is slashing .279/.296/.535 with three homers and eight RBI. He has had clutch hits, including his pinch-hit homer on Sunday, and has looked mostly like his old self overall despite the lack of walks thus far.
For as good as Tatis has been, though, the rest of the Padres’ roster has delivered too. San Francisco got shut out twice which was a testament to the strength of San Diego’s rotation and bullpen. The Padres got contributions up and down the lineup all series long as well.
Sunday was a bit more of a battle, but still ended up being a win despite Jurickson Profar, Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill, and Xander Bogaerts going a combined 0-13. If the Padres are winning games when the heart of their lineup doesn’t show up, they might be the team to beat when they do.