SAN DIEGO — Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a towering two-run homer on his first playoff swing in four years and Michael King struck out 12 in his first postseason start as the San Diego Padres beat rookie AJ Smith-Shawver and the Atlanta Braves 4-0 in Game 1 of their NL Wild Card Series on Tuesday night.
Tatis' 415-foot shot in the first inning landed in the second deck in left field at Petco Park and sent the towel-waving, sellout crowd of 47,647 into a frenzy. The 25-year-old star, who missed just more than 2½ months this season with a stress reaction in his right thighbone, watched the ball fly away, tossed his bat aside, gestured toward the home dugout and did his signature stutter step around third base.
«It's beautiful energy,» Tatis said. «I love this type of situation. It definitely brings the best out of me. And just looking forward to way more experiences like this.»
He said he was hunting a fastball.
«I was going for it probably before he released the pitch. But looking for my fastball, he left it over the plate, and had definitely great results. I knew it was going to go out. I didn't know it was going to land in the second deck just because how high it was.»
Game 2 in the best-of-three playoff is Wednesday night. If the Padres win the series, they'll face their biggest rivals, the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers, in the National League Division Series. The Padres eliminated the 111-win Dodgers in a 2022 NLDS.
King was brilliant in becoming the first pitcher to have 12 strikeouts with no runs or walks allowed in his first career postseason start. He permitted five hits and joined Kevin Brown and Sterling Hitchcock as the only Padres pitchers with double-digit strikeouts in a playoff game.
At 2 hours, 9 minutes,
ESPN
Trade
STARS
2020
Parke
FIVE
Fernando Tatis-Junior