Fernando Tatis Jr. found himself at the center of baseball’s outdated “unwritten rules” after smashing a grand slam on a 3-0 count with the Padres up by seven in the eighth inning against the Rangers. The homer was his second of the game and gave him the MLB lead with 11. Instead of celebrating, Tatis drew criticism from Texas manager Chris Woodward and even from his own manager, Jace Tingler, who said he should have taken the pitch. Tatis didn’t miss a sign—he never looked at the third base coach—and jumped on a fastball that wasn’t even right down the middle.
The Rangers responded with a retaliatory pitch behind Manny Machado’s back, which led to suspensions for the pitcher and Woodward. After the game, Woodward contradicted himself, saying teams should keep trying to come back but also that hitters should stop swinging with big leads. To make the situation more ironic, video clips surfaced of Woodward celebrating a 3-0 homer by Machado years earlier under similar circumstances.
Instead of praising Tatis for a dominant performance that highlighted why he’s one of the league’s most exciting young stars, Tingler chose to side with some unwritten code and publicly criticized his own player. Tatis later apologized for swinging, saying he’d “probably” take the pitch next time now that he knows. Most fans and media came to Tatis’ defense, pointing out the absurdity of expecting a hitter to pass up a chance to do his job just to preserve a pitcher’s pride. If anything came out of the controversy, it’s that more people are paying attention to Tatis—and not just for what he does at the plate, but how baseball still struggles to let players be themselves.