The San Diego Padres changed baseball history with a Grand Slam frenzy.
In response to a dispute about unwritten rules, the San Diego Padres have documented some very real history.
The Padres are the first club in MLB history to hit grand slams in four successive games thanks to Eric Hosmer’s home run on Thursday against the Texas Rangers.
In the fifth inning, Hosmer made baseball history by crashing a fastball down the left-field line that was inside. The broadcasters for the Padres were a tad too exuberant.
Before Hosmer’s grand slam, the Rangers saw Fernando Tatis Jr. on Monday, Manny Machado on Wednesday, and Wil Myers on Tuesday. Naturally, it was Tatis’s opening blow that got everyone in baseball paying attention to the series.
Eric Hosmer of the San Diego Padres, facing the camera, responds with colleagues following their grand slam hit on Thursday, August 20, 2020, in San Diego, during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers.
It’s been an entertaining and contentious series for the Padres, from Fernando Tatis Jr. to Eric Hosmer (center).
Padres use grand slam history as a response to the grand slam issue.
Tatis’ swing of the bat on Monday, with the Padres up seven runs on a 3-0 count, sparked the dispute. Tatis, as everyone knows, hit a long ball to give MLB the lead in home runs with 11. Reliever Ian Gibaut then threw a ball behind Machado on the following pitch, making it obvious that the Rangers were not thrilled.
Following the match, Rangers Chris Woodward, the manager, voiced several grievances regarding Tatis’s swinging at the pitch.
At his news conference following the game, Rangers manager Chris Woodward stated, “I think there’s a lot of unwritten rules that are constantly being challenged in today’s game.” Yes, personally, I didn’t enjoy it. Eighth inning leads you by seven runs; it’s usually not a good moment to swing for three.
We were all raised in the game in a manner similar to this. However, as I already stated, norms are being questioned every day, so just because I disagree doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Collectively, I don’t think we enjoyed it.
Padres manager Jayce Tingler basically concurred, stating that Tatis failed to recognize a take signal and that the encounter was a chance for “learning.” After tying the MLB record for home runs with a grand slam and becoming the breakout star of 2020, Tatis later issued an apology, which is perhaps not what the league should want to see.
The fact that a seven-run advantage is by no means safe—the Toronto Blue Jays rallied from a 0–7 deficit to win on the same day that Hosmer hit a grand slam—only served to further absurdize the scenario. After the Padres scored more than 30 runs on their side in four games, Woodward and Gibault were both suspended for their revenge against Machado.
Tatis’ slam turned out to be accurate, despite the entire ordeal serving as a tiresome reminder of how deeply ingrained unwritten rules are in today’s game.
