Fernando Tatis Jr. shouldn’t have to apologize for anything after angering Rangers with grand slam

This is so absurd.

San Diego Padres infielder Fernando Tatis Jr. is amazing at baseball and has proven it so far in the 2020 season, hitting his league-leading 11th home run on Monday night.

But because of the dumb “unwritten rules” of the sport that should have been thrown out a long, long time ago, that home run ticked off the Texas Rangers and led to Tatis apologizing for something he should NEVER have to say sorry about.

Here was the situation: it was the top of the eighth inning and the Padres were up 10-3 with the bases loaded. On a 3-0 pitch, Tatis hit a dinger for a grand slam, his second homer on the night:

On the very next pitch, Rangers pitcher Ian Gibaut threw a fastball behind Manny Machado:

Apparently, Tatis missed a sign to take that pitch, because it’s unwritten that when you’re up so much so late, you shouldn’t pile on the runs. That is absolutely absurd! Haven’t we seen bullpens blow seven-run leads on occasion? And, most important of all, we love home runs, especially grand slams! This is good for the game.

The quotes from Padres manager Jayce Tingler are infuriating (via USA TODAY Sports):

“He’s young, a free spirit and focused and all those things,” said Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. “That’s the last thing that we’ll ever take away. It’s a learning opportunity and that’s it. He’ll grow from it.

“Just so you know, a lot of our guys have green light 3-0. But in this game in particular, we had a little bit of a comfortable lead. We’re not trying to run up the score or anything like that.”

The same goes for the opposing manager, Chris Woodward:

There’s a lot of unwritten rules that are constantly being challenged in today’s game. I didn’t like it, personally,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “You’re up by seven in the eighth inning; it’s typically not a good time to swing 3-0. It’s kind of the way we were all raised in the game. But, like I said, the norms are being challenged on a daily basis. So just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not right. I don’t think we liked it as a group.”

Yes! The norms should be challenged! Grand slams are great no matter what the situation is. If you don’t want a player swinging on 3-0 with the bases loaded in a blowout, pitch better.

And Tatis apologized, which was unnecessary:

This is exactly the kind of stuff that’s bad for the game at a time when it needs all the positives it can get. Enough of this “unwritten rules” stuff that leads to throwing at or behind hitters — especially the next guy who had nothing to do with the previous home run. C’mon.

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