San Diego Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. has spoken out about playing through a downpour of boos.
“It was really loud,” Tatis said of the boos directed at him as he met with reporters after the team’s game against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, N.Y., on Sunday.
Tatis, who served an 80-game suspension last year after being caught using a banned substance, has been booed at every away game since his return this season.
On this particular day, the 46,724 먹튀검증 fans in attendance at Yankee Stadium booed him and chanted “steroid” slogans. Tatis had to deal with a particularly vocal section of the Yankee Stadium right-field bleachers.
Tatis, who occasionally turned his back and responded to the boos with hand gestures, said, “This is New York. You hear all kinds of things. I had a good time with the fans. I learned how to respond to it.”
When asked if he had known about this situation before, he said, “I’ve been playing baseball all my life, I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen how fans react, I’ve seen how they react. You have to take any situation as part of the game. Because the fans are the biggest part of this game.”
When asked what was the best way he responded to the fans today, he simply said, “That home run.”
He’s referring to his sixth-inning home run over the left field fence. It was a 113.4 mph home run that would have cleared all 30 major league ballparks.
“I just kept hitting hard pitches,” he said. At the end of the day, baseball is all about working hard and making adjustments day in and day out,” he said, emphasizing the importance of hitting the ball hard. “It’s big for us to start the series on a good note,” he said, adding that winning the first game of the series was important.
“A win is a win, but it feels better,” manager Bob Melvin said of the game, in which the two center fielders, Tatis and Juan Soto, broke the game open with home runs. “We’ve been struggling offensively, and when you see your center fielders contributing to the team, and you see how that can change the game in an instant, it gives you confidence,” he said.
He also praised starter Joe Musgrove, who pitched 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball. “He did a great job against a really good offense on a tough ballpark. It was one of his best outings of the season.”
“I’ve been working a lot the last couple weeks, trying to find my groove,” Musgrove said, adding that he’s been working a lot with the coaches. “I was able to focus on the technical aspects of my delivery and throwing to the plan and not worry about my form or injuries,” he said, adding that he hopes to build on the momentum from this performance.