Fernando Tatis Jr. Is A Postseason Superstar And Playing Like a Man Among Boys This October - The Padres Now Have The Dodgers On The Brink Of Elimination Because Of Him

Katelyn Mulcahy. Getty Images.

First of all, what a fucking picture above. The scene at Petco on Tuesday night was something else. Credit to FS1 for actually letting else hear the crowd, unlike TBS. That was fantastic. 

The San Diegans were ready for postseason baseball last night, no Dodger fans allowed. You could feel the electricity from the first pitch. Even though Mookie homered in the second at bat of the game, the place never stopped buzzing. Walker Buehler entered hell in the 2nd inning as the Padres bats jumped all over him. The bonanza was capped off with this Fernando Tatis Jr. detonation. Smoltz talked about the Dodgers aiming to pitch him away, as anything middle-in was going to get punished. I'd chalk up this pitch selection as a mistake. 

Alternate cinematic angle 

The kids like to talk about aura these days. Fernando has all of it. +1000 aura by my calculations.

How's your postseason going Fernando? Oh just 10 for 18 with 4 homers and 7 RBI. A casual 1.969 OPS. We call that unconscious. 

The Padres now find themselves one win away from knocking the Dodgers out of the postseason for the second time in three years. They look like a complete team. The lineup is a burden to deal with. Their starting pitching makes you feel good about your chances and the bullpen has been incredible since the deadline adds of Scott and Adam. Closer Robert Suarez went through his issues this season, but those seem to be well behind him. His 4 out save in Game 3 was dominant. Even though Michael King had a blow up inning with Teoscar's grand slam, the pen picked him up with four shutout innings to keep the Dodgers at bay. For the second night in a row, Ohtani was held in check. He's 3 for 13 in the series with just the one homer and six strikeouts. That's a massive win for San Diego's pitching. Tanner Scott has had him in hell. 

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The bigger problem for the Dodgers continues to be the pitching. While Buehler lasting 5 innings was admirable in saving the pen a bit, him starting this game in general spelled how rough a situation they're in. No Glasnow, May, Gonsolin, Kershaw, or any of the young guys. They really hoped Bobby Miller was going to be the guy, but it just didn't happen. Now they're up against it on Thursday night with a bullpen game on deck. On the opposite side? Dylan Cease on short rest. San Diego doesn't want this going back to LA and I don't blame them. Go for the kill in front of that crowd and punch your ticket to the NLCS. Today is going to be an incredible day of postseason baseball. 

P.S. Ken Rosenthal had this weird article yesterday where he called Tatis a dancing peacock and kinda ripped on some of the other fun Padres for their antics. I think Fernando read the article based on his postgame IG story.