Fernando Tatis Jr.’s grand slam off a 3-0 pitch riles ‘unwritten rules’ crowd

San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr.’s first grand slam gave the 21-year-old the major league lead in home runs over Mike Trout and a career-high seven RBIs.

But neither his manager, Jayce Tingler, or the skipper of the opposing Texas Rangers, Chris Woodward, cared for it on Monday night.

For Tingler, that was because Tatis missed a take sign to swing on a 3-0 pitch. Woodward didn’t especially like it because the Rangers were already down seven runs, 10-3, in the eighth inning of an eventual 14-4 loss.

Baseball’s unwritten rules say swinging in that situation with a 3-0 count is a no-no.

The Rangers showed their displeasure by throwing the next pitch behind slugger Manny Machado. It was the first pitch from Ian Gibault, who replaced Juan Nicasio.

So let's take a look at Woodward's reaction to Tatis Jr's grand slam and what happened with the very next pitch pic.twitter.com/sQ9qdtEyne

— CJ Fogler (@cjzer0) August 18, 2020

“I didn’t like it, personally,” Woodward said. “But, like I said, the norms are being challenged on a daily basis. So just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not right. I don’t think we liked it as a group.”

Tingler was less than pleased because Tatis missed a take sign, and his second homer of the game finished the scoring for the Padres.

While Tatis said his manager congratulated him after his 11th homer, which put him one ahead of Trout, Tingler was quick to tell him he missed a take sign.

“He’s young, a free spirit and focused and all those things,” Tingler said. “That’s the last thing that we’ll ever take away. It’s a learning opportunity and that’s it. He’ll grow from it.

“Just so you know, a lot of our guys have green light 3-0,” Tingler added. “But in this game in particular, we had a little bit of a comfortable lead. We’re not trying to run up the score or anything like that.”

Tatis, whose three-run homer in the seventh put the Padres up 10-3, said he got the message.

“I’ve been in this game since I was a kid,” he said. “I know a lot of unwritten rules. I was kind of lost on this. … Those experiences, you have to learn. Probably next time, I’ll take a pitch.”

Of course, baseball teams have been known to score seven or more runs in an inning. That aside, most of the reaction to Tatis’ decision were all positive and not with the pro-unwritten rules crowd.

Hey @tatis_jr listen up:

1) Keep swinging 3-0 if you want to, no matter what the game situation is
2) Keep hitting homers, no matter what the situation is
3) Keep bringing energy and flash to baseball and making it fun
4) The only thing you did wrong was apologize. Stop that.

— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) August 18, 2020

In this data driven baseball age, there’s nowhere to hide. If you have a tendency, it’s gonna be exploited. Swinging 3-0, to me, is the same as swinging first pitch of an AB. If you do it enough times, a pitcher can’t game plan as well against you.

— Collin McHugh (@Collin_McHugh) August 18, 2020

FTJ will have a 3-0 count in a leverage situation later this year, and I guarantee you the pitcher will remember this swing.

Advantage: hitter

— Collin McHugh (@Collin_McHugh) August 18, 2020

So you take a pitch…now you're 3-1. Then the pitcher comes back with a great setup pitch…3-2. Now you're ready to groundout into a double play. Everyone should hit 3-0. Grand Slams are a huge stat. @tatis_jr https://t.co/4D3ilsD9Sh

— Johnny Bench (@JohnnyBench_5) August 18, 2020

We were close to not having baseball at all this year. Yet here we are pissed Tatis Jr hit a Grand Slam.

— Lane Adams (@LA_Swiftness) August 18, 2020

#MLBCentral dives in to the controversy around Fernando Tatis Jr.'s 3-0 swing last night. pic.twitter.com/aplKPdbw8r

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) August 18, 2020

Fernando Tatis Jr. get reprimanded for trying, even in a blowout. Yet, if in that exact same context he were to hit a routine grounder and then jog out of the box to first base, would it be OK for him to say "ah screw it, we were up big, i didn't feel like running"?

— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) August 18, 2020

I'm guessing it's unwritten because whoever came up with it was too embarrassed to put it in writing

— Blake Ruane (@blakeruane) August 18, 2020

Again.. if the “unwritten rules” were so damn important.. someone should write them down https://t.co/A8AgmyyxpZ

— trey wingo (@wingoz) August 18, 2020

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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