Fernando Tatis Jr loves to do a little crime in right field. He is tall, and the wall out there in San Diego is so short, so how can he help it when the ball is so beautiful and so appealing and so available to be robbed? All season, he has been tracking the ball to the wall, leaping up, and snatching it just before it becomes a home run. He did this on Tuesday, too. At full speed, Tatis sprinted toward the wall, his hip slamming into the soft cushion of its padding, and stretched his long body up over the wall to grab the falling baseball. No home run for the Cincinnati Reds! The Padres had robbed another one.
All of this is getting a little ridiculous. The Robbin' Padres will not stop doing robberies. They cannot be shamed! They cannot be punished! No matter what anyone does, the Padres want to rob. On Tuesday, when I watched this Fernando Tatis Jr highlight, I did not want to write about it. Maybe, I thought, this website was part of the problem. By covering the Robbin' Padres' constant robberies, were we in fact pushing them to rob more? Already, we have written about these robberies three times. Imagine what it would do to their outfield's egos if we continued to cover their banditry.
But it turns out, the Robbin' Padres rob because there is robbery in their hearts. They rob for the love of the game. They do not just do it for the headlines. They do it because they have to. I know it because on Wednesday, despite no encouragement from me whatsoever, they robbed again.
In that game, left fielder Ramón Laureano wanted a robbery of his own. Jackson Merrill has so many, and Fernando Tatis has so many, and that's not really fair, is it? If all of your friends are doing crimes, shouldn't you get to do one too?
Laureano learned plenty from his teammates; he made robbing look easy. He tracked the ball to the wall and jumped straight up while standing on the warning track. His arm extended well above the wall, he found the home run ball and obliterated it in the darkness of his glove. That's an out. The pitcher, on the mound, threw both his hands above his head. Laureano jogged away coolly.
Crimes, unfortunately, do sometimes have punishments. After winning Monday's opener against Cincinnati, the Padres lost Tuesday's game to the Reds 4-2 and Wednesday's game 2-1. San Diego may have robbed those homers, but the Reds ultimately stole the series.
