Tatis Jr.'s unrivaled home-run extortion technique, praise of the state of art. I practiced when I was young when I was living in a New York apartment

Aug 21, 2025

Tatis Jr.'s unrivaled home-run extortion technique, praise of the state of art. I practiced when I was young when I was living in a New York apartment
San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. slumps on the ground after reaching out his glove over the fence in the top of the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park on the 21st (Korea time). AP Yonhap News



Tatis Jr.'s unrivaled home-run extortion technique, praise of the state of art. I practiced when I was young when I was living in a New York apartment
Tatis Jr. won the Platinum Glove, given to the best defender of 2023. ImagesYonhap News
San Diego Padres Fernando Tatis Jr. is making headlines again by catching a hit that crosses the fence.

Tatis started as a leadoff right fielder in a home game against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park on the 21st (Korea time) and scored two hits, one RBI, and one run from four times at bat, helping them to an 8-1 victory.

He hit a left-center double in the bottom of the first inning and scored the first run when Ryan Oh-heon hit a heavy hit after two outs. San Diego, which took the lead in the first inning, decided the early game by widening the gap to 6-0 with Gavin Sheets' solo home run in the second inning, Manny Machado's solo shot in the third inning, and Sheets' three-run shot.




It is no exaggeration to say that San Diego's victory came from Tatis' defense.

After one out in the top of the first inning, San Francisco's No. 2 Rafael Devers pulled a 78.3-mile sweeper in the middle of San Diego starter JP Sears' seventh pitch and hit a big hit to the right.

The ball, which stretched at a launch angle of 29 degrees and a speed of 96.4 miles, seemed to cross the fence. At this time, right fielder Tatis rushed to the fence looking at the ball. As soon as the ball fell, he took the timing and jumped, then extended his glove over the fence and snatched it accurately.




Tatis Jr.'s unrivaled home-run extortion technique, praise of the state of art. I practiced when I was young when I was living in a New York apartment
San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. slumps on the ground after reaching out his glove over the fence in the top of the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park on the 21st (Korea time). AP Yonhap News
Tatis Jr., who caught the ball and fell to the ground, sat against the bottom of the fence and looked chic. The ball was in his glove. Pitcher Sears reached out and thanked him, and Devers, who hit the ball, smiled despondently and looked at Tatis Jr.

However, Tatis has frequently shown defense in the second half of the year to jump and block such home run-like balls.

MLB.com has been working on turning home run stealing into an art form for years'In an article titled 'Tatis deleted three home runs in the right outfield during the last 18 games at Petco Park.




Tatis jumped Mark Vientos' superior home run ball in the top of the fourth inning against the New York Mets on the 29th of last month and stretched his glove over the fence. At that time, the flying distance of the ball was 380 feet, which was estimated to have crossed the fence in 19 of the 30 stadiums.

Tatis Jr.'s unrivaled home-run extortion technique, praise of the state of art. I practiced when I was young when I was living in a New York apartment
Fernando Tatis Jr. catches Josh Naylor's run-scoring hit in the eighth inning against Arizona on the 9th of last month (Korea time). ImagesYonhap News
Earlier on July 9, in the match against the Arizona Diamondbacks, reliever Jason Adam, who caught Josh Naylor's ball in the top of the eighth inning and allowed the ball at the time, took off his hat and reciprocated.

Tatis' unrivaled ability to hunt 'home run batting' is said to have started with childhood practice.

According to MLB.com , Tatis lived on the first floor of an apartment building in New York City when his father, Tatis Sr., played for the New York Mets (2008-2010). The apartment was surrounded by a fence, and it is said that the height was slightly higher than Tartis, who was 10 years old at the time. Tatis, who was playing with the ball, must have practiced throwing the ball over the wall and catching it.

Tatis played a game of throwing the ball high enough to hit the wall then jumping and catching it. Obviously 25 of them have been missed. So I practiced jumping over the wall and catching the ball. That's the beginning of the defense now."

Tatis was originally a shortstop. He made his major league debut in 2019 and played shortstop until 2020. Then, in 2021, he played in 23 games as an outfielder while mainly watching shortstop. Then, he returned in 2023 and won the Platinum Glove as a full-time right fielder after taking a full-time break in 2022 due to his drug use. The Platinum Glove is an award given to the best defense among the Gold Glove winners of the season through fan voting.

Tatis said of the catch on the day "I ran as if I was hunting from the start. If the ball seemed to cross the fence, I knew I had a chance to catch it. I'm happy to catch it for our starting pitcher."





This article was translated by Naver AI translator.