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Fernando Tatis Jr. calls out Tigers for pitching around Luis Arráez after Padres' win

"I took it personal."
Emma Lingan
Emma Lingan

Motor City Bengals

Detroit Tigers v San Diego Padres / Orlando Ramirez/GettyImages

The Detroit Tigers squandered a five-run lead over the San Diego Padres Wednesday, sending the game to extra innings and ultimately suffering a second consecutive loss.

The Tigers had a chance to break the tie in the top of the 10th inning with runners at the corners and two outs against right-handed reliever Jeremiah Estrada, but pinch hitter Justyn-Henry Malloy flew out to center field.

Jason Foley came in to pitch for the Tigers in the bottom of the 10th and retired the first two batters he faced, as Elias Díaz grounded out to third and Mason McCoy went down on strikes. With Jackson Merrill still on second base as the Padres' free runner in the extra inning, the next batter Foley was set to face was lefty slugger Luis Arráez.

It wasn't a favorable matchup, to say the least; Foley historically struggles against lefties, and Arráez is a two-time batting champion and Silver Slugger who rarely misses an opportunity to put the ball in play. The Tigers, therefore, opted to pitch around Arráez, intentionally walking him to put runners on first and second for right-handed hitter Fernando Tatis Jr.

The rest, as they say, is history. Tatis smacked a second-pitch slider hard on the ground to left field, Merrill scored from second, and the Padres walked it off with a 6-5 victory.

Fernando Tatis Jr. calls out Tigers for pitching around Luis Arráez after Padres' win

The Tigers' decision to intentionally walk Arráez may have had more to do with him than it did with Tatis, as the former's .311 batting average leads the National League, but the latter took great offense to the decision.

"I took it personal," Tatis said after the game (via NBC Sports San Diego's Darnay Tripp). "As soon as I saw four fingers up, but it gave me the push that I needed, the energy that I needed. I just wanted to come through for the boys."

Come through, he did. Tatis had also just returned from the injured list before Monday's series opener against the Tigers. He hadn't played since June 21 because of a right femoral stress reaction.

Ultimately, the Tigers were between a rock and a hard place. They picked their poison, and it didn't go their way. But they put themselves in that position by squandering a five-run lead, so they should have been expecting to pay the consequences.

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Emma Lingan

Emma Lingan

Emma Lingan is an MLB Staff Writer for FanSided primarily covering the Pittsburgh Pirates. She has been covering baseball for more than a decade dating back to her time as a student at Wake Forest University, and she has won two gold medals as a member of the U.S. National Team delegation (2016 Pan-American Championships & 2017 World Baseball Classic). A native of Washington, D.C. and current resident of Nashville, Tenn., she is also entering her seventh season as a credentialed NHL media member and currently covers the NHL’s Nashville Predators for The Hockey News. When she's not watching hockey, baseball or football, she enjoys podcasting, reading, going to the gym, consuming large amounts of coffee and taking long walks with her dog, Minkah. You can follow her @Emma_lingan on Twitter and Instagram.