Bill Center, longtime sportswriter for U-T San Diego, is an employee of the Padres.
At the moment, the Mets’ Pete Alonso appears to be leading the race for the National League Rookie of the Year Award. But it is too soon to count out the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr.
The 20-year-old shortstop continued to make a strong case over the weekend against the San Francisco Giants.
He was 6-for-12 in the three-game series with a clutch, two-run homer in addition to more highlight-quality plays in the field. He was also hit by a pitch and knocked down another time. In neither circumstance did Tatis react. In fact, he refused to criticize the pitchers.
And Tatis homered on the very next pitch from Shaun Anderson following the Saturday knockdown.
With two multihit games in the series, Tatis has 28 on the season, tying Alonso for the Major League lead by a rookie. And Alonso didn’t miss 30 games on the injured list ... as Tatis did with a strained left hamstring.
Plus, Tatis legged out his 15th infield hit Sunday, tying Manuel Margot for the team lead.
Tatis is now hitting .333 on the season. That would rank third in the National League had Tatis had enough at-bats to qualify. It is also fairly save to say that Tatis would have around 25 homers, 75 runs scored, 20 steals and 60 RBIs had he not been injured.
Tatis’ 3.9 WAR is equal to that of Alonso ... and of course would likely be in the 5’s had he not been injured. And had Tatis not missed 30 games, he’d rank among the National League leaders in most offensive categories -- including on-base percentage (.393), slugging percentage (.597) and OPS (.991).
Notebook
• Outfielder Wil Myers showed signs of breaking out of his prolonged hitting slump over the weekend against the Giants, going 3-for-7 in the final two games of the series with two doubles, his 13th homer, three RBIs and two runs scored. The homer was his first since July 2 (also against) the Giants. The doubles were his first since June 28. The three RBIs and runs scored doubled his totals for July. Before the weekend, Myers, who had lost his starting role, was 3-for-22 with 12 strikeouts. Myers reached base in 11 of his 12 starts against the Giants this season.
• Left-hander Matt Strahm didn’t pitch Sunday. But in his first six outings out of the bullpen, Strahm has allowed one run on five hits and a walk with 12 strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings.
• Although the Padres' bullpen is fully manned with live arms at the moment, its use is a bit limited by the face that 20-year-olds Andres Munoz and Adrian Morejon plus 23-year-old Michel Baez had never worked in back-to-back games as Minor Leaguers.