Three months of struggle unleashed a relentless second half for Tatis

MILWAUKEE -- It took Fernando Tatis Jr. 239 plate appearances before his first home run this year. He endlessly tinkered with his stance and mechanics. He grinded in the batting cage. All the while, the Padres struggled.

In the postseason? Tatis homered on the very first pitch. He got a changeup from Cubs starter Matthew Boyd and mashed it to center field before posing and dropping his bat. When the ball landed beyond the outstretched glove of center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, the Padres were well on their way to an emphatic two-game Wild Card sweep of the Cubs.

“He goes, we go,” Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts said during Friday’s workout day at American Family Field.

The last time Tatis was here in Milwaukee … he was not “going.” Neither were the Padres.

San Diego dropped a three-game series to the Brewers at American Family Field in mid-May. Tatis went 0-for-5 in the finale, lowering his OPS to .607. He still hadn’t homered.

Let’s just say this will be a distinctly different version of Tatis arriving in Milwaukee for Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Brewers on Saturday night.

Starting from the day after that May series, Tatis has been the second most valuable player in baseball, according to fWAR, trailing only Crow-Armstrong. And considering the way Tatis outshone PCA in that Wild Card Series, there’s a legitimate case to make that, right now, at this very moment, he’s the best player in baseball.

“His first playoff series was a carry-on of what he's been doing the second half of the season,” said Padres manager Craig Stammen. “He definitely had to dig deep and find out who he really is as a baseball player, who he really wanted to be and kind of block out the outside noise, honestly. He did a very good job of that.”

Eventually -- finally -- Tatis hit his first home run on May 30 at Washington. He still hadn’t quite figured everything out by the All-Star break, but he was clearly trending in the right direction.

Then, in the second half, he came out on fire.

Tatis batted .307/.385/.610 after the break. Twenty of his 25 home runs occurred during the second half. He was a force. And not merely because of the power numbers. Tatis continued to make his usual impact with his legs (he swiped a career-high 38 bases this season) and his glove (he was outstanding in right field, while adding second base to his repertoire as well).

Factor in the power, and Tatis is clearly one of the best players in the sport. And he might not be “one of.”

“Once he got on board with: I'm going to be a great baseball player, not just a great hitter or great home run hitter … I'm just going to be a great baseball player, I think he felt that feeling he had when he was 10 years old when he was invincible,” Stammen said. "That he could be the same player in Major League Baseball. We've seen a lot of glimpses of that over the back half of the season. And we saw a lot in the two games in the Wild Card series.”

Did we ever. Tatis controlled the series from the very first pitch. He made a couple of solid plays in right field. He electrified Petco Park by going first-to-home on a stolen base when the throw kicked away into shallow left-center.

When Tatis slid headfirst into home plate safely, he crouched and let loose a roar, with Petco Park descending into bedlam around him. Thus far, it’s the defining image of the Padres’ postseason.

In May, that version of Tatis seemed distant. He was certainly still affecting the game. He was reaching base in the leadoff spot, and his glove and his wheels were useful. But his struggles at the plate -- particularly with his power -- seemed to sap some of that exuberance.

Four months later, Tatis has been adamant: Those struggles made him an even better player.

“It made me know myself better,” Tatis said recently. “To even put a bigger trust in myself and the ability that I have -- and building from there.”

The changes weren’t as straightforward as the world seemed to think. Duh, Tatis needed to start pulling the ball in the air. He and the Padres were keenly aware of that. Problem is, if that’s what you’re thinking about at the plate, it leaves you susceptible to breaking pitches on the outer half.

The Padres and Tatis worked tirelessly on mechanical tweaks that allowed him to tap into that power, without Tatis actually focusing on that power. It was a balancing act.

“Obviously a lot of work, but I always say, and I'll keep saying it: This game is a game of adjustments every single day,” Tatis said. “It's actually how good you can adapt day after day and still find a way to be consistent and find a way to help the team win.”

He’s doing exactly that. Been doing it for a while now. Asked in August what it took to get him back to this place -- where Tatis, again, looks like Fernando Tatis Jr., he grew reflective. What did it take?

“Three months of struggling,” he said.