Fernando Tatis Jr. has been swinging it better lately. His June numbers look good. Nine doubles. A .323 average. The power hasn’t fully come back yet, but he’s been productive.
Then Friday night happened. And it wasn’t just the 15-3 score that stung.
The Padres were already buried by the time the ninth inning rolled around. The Dodgers had dropped nine runs in the sixth to turn a tight game into a laugher. So Dave Roberts, managing a bullpen that needed a break, did what managers do in blowouts. He handed the ball to Miguel Rojas. A 36-year-old infielder who hadn’t pitched in the majors since 2023.
Rojas’s stuff looked like it. Soft. Floaty. The kind of pitch any big league hitter should crush.
Tatis stepped in. Two-time Silver Slugger. One of the most electrifying hitters in the game. He saw a pitch that might as well have been hanging on a tee. And he swung right through it.
A full-on whiff on a lollipop.
The look on his face said everything. That mix of disbelief and embarrassment that every hitter knows but few have to feel after missing a position player’s 55-mph offering. He grounded out after that. The whole inning lasted about four minutes. Routine 1-2-3.
MLB posted the video. It spread fast. Because watching a star player fail to square up a non-pitcher’s softball lob is funny and a little sad at the same time.
Another casualty took a hit in a weird spot
Dalton Rushing, the Dodgers’ young catcher, had a rough week at the plate. That sixth-inning home run he crushed 399 feet felt like a nice way to flip the script. Then in the ninth, something went wrong. Rojas’s pitch got away from him a little. It caught Rushing in the thigh area. Or the groin area. Depends who you ask. Either way, it didn’t look comfortable.
He’s probably doing better than Tatis right now, though.
The power numbers aren’t what they used to be
Tatis hit 71 homers over his previous three seasons. Not bad for a guy who missed a full year. But he’s on pace for maybe 15 or 16 this year. The pre-PEDs version of Tatis was a 40-homer threat. The current version is more of a doubles-and-defense guy. That’s fine if he keeps hitting .284 with a .346 on-base. The Padres won’t complain too much as long as he’s helping them win.
But that swing on Rojas’s pitch? That one’s going to sit with him until he steps in the box again Sunday.
San Diego sits at 43-38. Los Angeles is 53-30. The rubber match is Sunday. Tatis will get his chance to make up for it.
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