San Diego. Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a towering two-run homer in his first playoff start in four years. With this and the 12 strikeouts that Michael King recorded, the San Diego Padres defeated the Atlanta Braves 4-0 in the first game of their National League wild card series in the Major Leagues.
Tatis’ 415-foot shot landed in the second deck of left field at Petco Park and sent the crowd of 47,647 into a frenzy as they waved towels around the stadium.
The 25-year-old star, who missed just over two and a half months this season due to a stress reaction in his right femur, watched the ball go away, tossed his bat aside, gestured toward the home dugout and made his trademark stutter step around third base.
The second game of the best-of-three series will be played this Wednesday night. If the Padres win the key, they will face their biggest rivals, the NL West champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in the NL Division Series. San Diego eliminated the ninth Angelina, who has 111 wins, in 2022.
King had a brilliant night, becoming the first pitcher to have 12 strikeouts and no runs or walks in his first postseason start. He joined Kevin Brown and Sterling Hitchcock as the only Padres pitchers with double-digit strikeout games in playoff history. He allowed five hits and no walks.
The New Yorker made his debut in this instance with the New York Yankees in the 2020 American League playoff bubble in a strangely empty Petco Park, where the only fans were a few thousand cardboard cutouts. He pitched two innings in a loss in Game 3 of a Division Series that Tampa Bay won in five games.
The right-hander arrived in the blockbuster trade that sent Juan Soto to the Yankees on December 7. The Padres were the only one of the four local teams to win yesterday.
The Braves clinched a playoff berth by winning the second game of a revenge doubleheader against the New York Mets on Monday in Atlanta. They will be without NL Cy Young Award favorite Chris Sale for this series. The left-hander was ruled out of Monday’s final game due to spasms.
#home #run #Tatis #Padres #defeat #Braves
– 2024-10-04 04:18:28
