Good morning,

Shortly after the celebration ended and he had dressed and was ready to leave, Fernando Tatis Jr. stood in front of his locker and smiled wanly.

His offseason training partner and close friend had won last night’s game with a walk-off single with two outs in the 10th inning.

“I love him,” Tatis said of Jurickson Profar. “I love him to death. I just know Profar is going to show up, he’s going to play as hard as he can every single time. The dude, he’s an All-Star. He’s a really good player.”

That was the only time Tatis did not seem entirely sad as he spoke about the injury that will likely keep him out at least a month and perhaps closer to two months or more.

“It’s going to be some time,” Tatis said. “We’re trying to aim after the All-Star Game (in mid-July). But we’re talking about something serious in my bone in my right leg.”

You can read (here) in our game preview from yesterday afternoon about Tatis being placed on the injured list with a stress reaction in his right femur and the laundry list of other roster moves, including Adam Mazur being recalled to start in place of Yu Darvish tonight.

“There’s some serious stuff in my leg that can get worse,” Tatis said. “We definitely don’t want that. I was playing through it. I probably could have kept going, but the doctors recommended for the best to heal it now. That way it doesn’t get worse, and it’s just better that way.”

The initial diagnosis of a quad strain was wrong, as imaging last week showed.

Tatis said he suspected as much.

“I know what I was feeling,” he said. “I knew it was not muscular. It was some really sharp pain. But at the end of the day, we’re here for results. It doesn’t matter how tough it gets. We just have to go out there and show up.”

Tatis did that. He actually kept getting better, at least at the plate. Over his past 25 starts, he was batting .354 with a 1.003 OPS.

“I feel like I can hold it for as long as I could,” Tatis said. “It got to a point where it was (hurting) in my right leg, but it was going all through my body.”

The injury had previously been described as having bothered Tatis for several weeks. Tatis defined “several” more precisely last night.

“It’s been a long one,” he said. “It’s been progressive. After (the season-opening series in) Korea, I got cramps all over my body after that last game. And then when it got real serious (was) when we played that first series in San Francisco. I started feeling it then, and then from that point it started getting worse.”

That might not be great news.

Dr. Timothy Gibson, a board certified orthopedic surgeon at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, said the recovery time for a stress reaction can be related to how long someone has dealt with the injury.

Gibson, who has not examined Tatis and was responding to general questions about stress reactions in elite athletes, said Tatis should recover “100 percent” and not have any ongoing issues.

But the time for a return to play could range from six to 14 weeks.

Perhaps there are some questions that should be asked about how this injury to one of the team’s most important players — not to mention a 25-year-old who has 10 years and some $314 million left on his contract after this season — was handled. However, we should be careful not to assume the Padres bungled this.

“It would be easy for it to look like a muscle strain,” Gibson said. “This is the kind of injury a runner gets. It’s not that common. The fact it was delayed is not all that surprising.”

Pro things

Profar’s game-winning single was his fourth hit in four at-bats with the bases loaded this season. It would have been his fourth extra-base hit in that situation if it had mattered to him.

You can read my game story (here) from last night’s 7-6 victory over the Nationals to see what that was all about.

MVP and the P stands for Profar 👑 pic.twitter.com/ku5VMwrt2z

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 25, 2024

Last night was Profar’s seventh game-winning RBI (second on the team, one behind Jake Cronenworth) and his 12th go-ahead RBI (tied for second with Cronenworth and Manny Machado, two behind Tatis).

He leads the Padres with 50 total RBIs.

He leads the major leagues with a .519 average in late-and-close situations and is second on the Padres with a .351 average with runners in scoring position. (The team leader with RISP is Arraez, who the Nationals intentionally walked in front of Profar.)

And one of the most impressive things about Profar is that he has been unafraid to say that teammates need to step up. And he continues to back up his words.

As I wrote last week (here), playing for the Padres is important to him.

“I think the biggest thing — and something that means a lot to us — is he wanted to be here,” Cronenworth said last night. “And he expressed that very early on, and we all wanted him to be here as well. We were disappointed when he left last year. But it’s great to have him back. And the year he’s having, that’s who he is. He’s played in this league for a long time and he’s had an incredible year, and I’m so happy for him.”

They keep coming back

Last night’s comeback was unique.

It was just the second time in franchise history a Padres came back to win after trailing by three or more runs in extra innings. The other time came in the team’s inaugural season, on July 5, 1969, when the Astros scored four runs in the top of the 12th before the Padres scored five in the bottom of the 12th to win 9-8.

However, last night did continue a few trends for the Padres.

It was their 18th victory this season in a game in which they had lost a lead. It was also their sixth time coming back to win after trailing by three or more runs and the 16th time they won a game after trailing or being tied in the seventh inning or later. It was their third extra-inning victory and their fifth walk-off.

These are not things that happen all that much.

Just two teams have come back from down three or more runs more often than the Padres this year, and two others have done it as much. More than a third of the league has done it two or fewer times.

The Phillies are the only team that has not come back from a deficit of more than two runs this season. And they are fine with that, having won 52 games, tied with the Yankees for most in the major leagues.

The Padres would certainly rather they didn’t need so much late heroics.

But …

“There’s no substitute for will and belief, and this team has it,” manager Mike Shildt said. “That’s a trait we identified early on. And it’s a trait that, candidly, every great team has. Some things we still gotta improve on. But that part is —- we’re in a really good spot, and from that standpoint, couldn’t be more pleased with this group.”

Yes, some things have to get better.

Before their four-run 10th inning, they made 19 straight outs. The game-tying run scored off Adrián Morejón in part because a ball slipped out of Cronenworth’s hand. Enyel De Los Santos surrendered a two-out RBI double to a .204 hitter and then a two-run homer.

“Really dope that we could pull it out,” Jackson Merrill said. “I don’t think we played our best brand of baseball today. But, you know, you can play your worst version of baseball and still win a ballgame. That’s something to look at.”

Solano paying off

There were other teams willing to give 36-year-old Donovan Solano the same minor-league deal the Padres did. He felt the Padres were more sincere about needing him in the big leagues.

So he signed a minor-league deal with them in April that would guarantee him the prorated portion of $1 million ($790,323) if he was called up to the big leagues.

Neither side had any idea how much he would be needed.

Solano was called up May 5 and started seven of the first 20 games with the team. He has started 21 of the past 27.

He has served as Manny Machado’s fill-in at third base, was briefly Luis Arraez’s fill-in at first and has started nine times as the Padres’ designated hitter.

That is what he was last night when he singled and scored in the second inning and led off the 10th inning with a double.

Solano is batting .277/.349/.402 and consistently puts together at-bats that are out of a coaching video. He is chasing at a 25.3 percent rate, which would be among the 50 best marks in the league if he had enough plate appearances. He is averaging 4.28 pitches every time he goes to the plate, which would rank in the top 10 if he were a qualifier.

Solano has known hitting coach Victor Rodriguez for several years and they live near each other in Florida. One day during spring training, Rodriguez got a call from Solano. But when he answered, he found out Solano had dialed him by accident, thinking he was calling his gardener, who is also named Victor.

They chatted for a bit, and Rodriguez asked him if he had a job yet. Solano said he did not.

The Padres were already taking with Solano’s agent, trying to get the price to line up. But Rodriguez became a big booster internally.

It essentially was going to come down to Solano or Tommy Pham, whose price remained much higher. Pham signed with the White Sox on the same day the Padres reached an accord with Solano for one-third of Pham’s price.

Catching up

Jeff Sanders wrote before yesterday’s game (here) about CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore, two former No.1 prospects traded to the Nationals as part of the package that got the Padres Juan Soto in 2022.

Abrams ended up having a fine night, going 3-for-5 with a double and stealing two bases.

Gore (6-6, 3.49) starts tonight’s game.

Tidbits

• Last night’s 10th inning was the 28th inning this season in which the Padres have scored four or more runs. That matches last season’s 162-game total.
• Ha-Seong Kim’s bunt single in the second inning, a safety squeeze that scored Cronenworth with the game’s first run, was the Padres’ 14th bunt hit. That is tied with the Royals for most in the major leagues. (Here is video of the play.)
• Machado is evidently an everyday third baseman once again. He has started the past five games there, his longest stretch of the season.
• Kyle Higashioka was 1-for-3 with a two-run double last night and is batting .243 (9-for-37) with five home runs, a triple and a double in June.
• Cronenworth was 1-for-4 and scored twice last night. He is 10-for-22 (.455) with nine runs during a five-game hit streak.
• Merrill was 1-for-4 with a run and two RBIs last night and is 10-for-23 (.435) with eight RBIs during a six-game hit streak.
• The Padres were 5-for-8 with runners in scoring position last night, their most hits in that circumstance in 15 games.
• Remember when it was a big deal the Padres were so bad at night at Petco Park? If not, here is a reminder they were at one point 4-15 in night games downtown. They have now won seven straight night home games.

All right, that’s it for me.

Talk to you tomorrow.