NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Fernando Tatis Jr. favors robbing homers over hitting them.<\/p>\n
Tatis’ glove and bat were on display Tuesday night in a 5-2 win over the Mets as the 27-year-old robbed New York’s Francisco Lindor of a grand slam in between hitting two homers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTough challenge,\u201d Tatis said following his 14th career two-homer game, which ties him for second in franchise history. \u201cBut robbery today was more fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tatis hit the first pitch from New York’s Zac Thornton 452 feet into the second deck in left field before adding a two-run homer off Thornton in the fifth. He has 15 homers after opening the season without a longball in his first 238 at-bats.<\/p>\n
But Tatis\u2019 biggest contribution in the game came in the field in the second inning, when reached over the wall in in right field and pulled back Lindor\u2019s potential slam.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing \u2014 he\u2019s seriously one of the most athletic fielders I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d said Padres pitcher Robbie Ray, who loaded the bases with three walks. \u201cWhat he\u2019s able to do out there, just to be able to be in that spot to make that catch, was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tatis, Ray and manager Craig Stammen were all surprised as Lindor\u2019s fly drifted toward the wall on an night with minimal wind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it was going to be a play at the wall,\u201d Tatis said. \u201cJust great timing \u2014 prepare myself to launch and go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tatis was one step from the wall when he jumped and grabbed the ball just as it began to clear the wall. The converted shortstop used his hands to break his fall as his hat fell off and bounced behind him.<\/p>\n
Tatis stood straight up and stared toward the infield, which left everyone on the field and the crowd of 35,508 wondering if he\u2019d made the catch.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust taking off a grand slam right there, that\u2019s a game changer,\u201d Tatis said.<\/p>\n
Tatis then raised his glove, after which Ray raised his arms and put his glove on his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe does it with a flair,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s who makes Fernando who he is and why we love watching him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ray walked a few more steps with his glove on his hat, grinning in disbelief as he gazed at Tatis, who jogged in with his mouth agape before he exchanged low fives with centerfielder Jackson Merrill.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of blacked out in the moment,\u201d Ray said with a grin. \u201cJust a really cool \u2014 it was just an incredible play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ray allowed just two baserunners over his final four innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up there as one of the most impactful games he\u2019s had as a Padre, for sure,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cYou look at how many runs he created and then how many runs he took away. That\u2019s a pretty big number.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey talk about plus\/minus in the NBA and hockey and stuff like that. That was a big plus\/minus game for \u2018Tati\u2019 tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Fernando Tatis Jr. favors robbing homers over hitting them. Tatis’ glove and bat were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[58652,1769,5,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203],"class_list":["post-782663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-mets","tag-ap-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-baseball","tag-mets","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-mets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkmets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117121088467251010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}