Fernando Tatis Jr. got under the Los Angeles Dodgers’ skin on Sunday night, thanks in large part to his historic performance at the plate.

The San Diego Padres right fielder opened up Game 2 of the NLDS with a solo home run in the first inning, adding a double in the third. The next time he stepped up to the plate in the sixth, Tatis got plunked by Dodgers pitcher Jack Flaherty.

Flaherty got pulled two batters later, just after striking out Manny Machado and trash talking the Padres shortstop from the dugout. All the while, the Padres remained ahead and Tatis teased Dodgers fans in the outfield.

Some fans eventually threw objects at Tatis and left fielder Jurickson Profar, causing an extended delay in the game. Tatis wasn’t fazed, though, blasting a 401-foot, two-run bomb in the top of the ninth inning.

It marked the second two-home run performance of Tatis’ career – following Game 2 of the 2020 NL Wild Card Series – and put the cherry on top of a 10-2 San Diego win that evened the series 1-1. He is the only player in league history with two multi-home run playoff games before turning 26, per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.

Tatis is now batting .643 with three home runs, five RBI and a 2.151 OPS through four games in the 2024 postseason. He went 4-for-6 with one home run, two RBI and two walks in the NL Wild Card Series against the Atlanta Braves, and is 5-for-8 with two home runs, three RBI and a hit-by-pitch so far in the NLDS.

According to Langs, Tatis boasts the fourth-highest OPS by any player through the first four games of a single postseason, minimum 15 plate appearances.

The all-time leader is David Ortiz, who had a 2.444 OPS four games into the 2007 playoffs. Lou Gehrig ranks second with the 2.433 OPS he had through the first four games of the 1928 postseason, while Colby Rasmus’ 2.188 OPS from 2015 ranks third.

Ortiz and Gehrig went on to win the World Series with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees those years, while Rasmus’ St. Louis Cardinals lost in the NLDS. Padres fans surely hope Tatis can lead them to a title the same way the former two legends did, although that would require winning 10 more games this October.

Tatis and the Padres will get Monday off, then face the Dodgers again in Game 3 on Tuesday. First pitch from Petco Park is scheduled for 9:08 p.m.

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LOS ANGELES — Asked about the prospect of facing Shohei Ohtani during the superstar’s heater, Yu Darvish deflected.

He was preparing to face all nine Dodgers hitters, not just the greatest hitter on the planet.

It was a sound strategy.

The Padres’ 38-year-old veteran spun seven strong innings in the Padres’ 10-2 win on Sunday at Dodger Stadium, retiring Ohtani all three times he faced him.

The key: Nobody was on base for any of those meetings.

“I think it was important,” Darvish said through interpreter Shingo Horie. “I felt like I had really good concentration on the mound, just going batter by batter, and just great focus. And I did get in trouble a little bit in the second inning, but other than that, I thought it was a pretty good night.”

Indeed.

Darvish scattered three hits and two walks in joining Kevin Brown as the only Padres pitchers with three seven-inning postseason starts on his resume. This one lowered Darvish’s ERA to 2.53 in Padres playoff games, as the one-run, seven-inning effort matched what he did in Game 1 in the NL wild-card series in Queens in 2022 to get the Padres started on their push that year into the NLCS.

Darvish struck out just three batters on Sunday, but the first was a biggie: Ohtani, flailing on a low-and-away slider to keep momentum on the Padres’ side after Fernando Tatis Jr.’s first-inning home run.

The Dodgers plated a run in the second inning on Gavin Lux’s sacrifice fly to center with the bases loaded, but that inning ending with eight-hole hitter Tommy Edman lining into a double play at first base with runners on first and second.

The next inning, Miguel Rojas flied out to center and Ohtani grounded out to second.

In the fifth, Rojas flied out to center to end the inning with a runner on second, leaving Ohtani to lead off the sixth inning without the ability to do any significant damage, as he did with his three-run homer in Game 1.

A tapper back to the mound the next inning dropped Ohtani to 1-for-8 with two strikeouts in head-to-head matchups with Darvish, whom he calls his childhood hero.

In all, Darvish showed Ohtani six different pitches over 15 pitches spread between the three plate appearances.

Only one offering was a true four-seam fastball. Darvish threw four curveballs and four splitters.

“I was trying to see how he reacted to some of the pitches that I was throwing,” Darvish said. “And on top of that, I was trying to keep him off balance by holding a little bit longer, stuff like that, so that anything that you can do to keep him off balance.

“I think it worked pretty well tonight.”

Added Padres manager Mike Shildt: “Pitching is a disruption of hitter’s balance and timing … (and) Yu is really good at that. The back and forth is the timing. The in and out is the balance. And he was able to do that masterfully tonight against the whole lineup.”

Originally Published: October 6, 2024 at 9:37 p.m.

Game 1 of a National League Divisional Series between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers lived up to its main event billing on a day full of Divisional Series games on Saturday.

After the Padres broke out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, Shohei Ohtani brought the Dodgers even with a three-run home run. San Diego fought back to take a 5-3 lead and Los Angeles scored four unanswered runs to win 7-5 and take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five NLDS.

The two sides will play Game 2 of the NLDS on Sunday. If the Padres win, then they will head home to Petco Park for Game 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday with an opportunity to win the series in front of their home crowd. If the Dodgers win, then San Diego will be one game away from elimination and could see its World Series dreams dashed in front of its hometown fans.

Every game has major implications, and the two National League West rivals will have two top-tier pitchers on the mound that reflect the stakes.

Yu Darvish will get the start for the Padres and Jack Flaherty will start for Los Angeles.

Darvish had a 3.31 ERA in 16 starts this season with 78 strikeouts in 81.2 innings pitched. He will be making his 12th career postseason start. He has a 4.19 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 58 innings pitched in his previous 11 playoff outings.

Flaherty has a 3.17 ERA this season in 28 starts with 194 strikeouts in 162 innings pitched. Flaherty will make his sixth postseason appearance (fifth start). He has a 3.60 ERA in his previous five outings with 31 strikeouts in 25 innings pitched.

San Diego had Dylan Cease on the mound on Saturday and the Dodgers started Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Neither pitcher did particularly well and the back-and-forth game was a result of that.

Both teams will hope that their starters on Sunday can do a better job at stifling the potent offenses.

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