Hard-hit balls, hard luck of late for Tatis

SEATTLE -- Want to know how things have gone for Fernando Tatis Jr. lately? The fourth inning Tuesday night just about sums it up.

Tatis destroyed Logan Gilbert’s middle-middle fastball, sending it 410 feet to straight-away center field. It left his bat at 108.7 mph with a 30-degree launch angle -- a combination that produces a hit roughly 99% of the time. Tatis dropped his bat and watched as the ball soared toward the batter’s eye at T-Mobile Park. Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez leapt at the wall.

When Rodríguez landed, nobody in the building seemed to know where the baseball was. But Tatis did. Seconds later -- seconds that lingered like an eternity -- Rodríguez broke into a grin and opened his glove. There it was.

• Game Story: Padres' bats run into a buzz saw in Gilbert ▶️

And so it went for the Padres on Tuesday night in their 2-0 series-opening loss in Seattle. So it’s gone for Tatis for a while now.

“I've got 109, 110 off the bat, and it's still not going out,” Tatis said. “That's everything I can control -- like I've been saying for how long? Three weeks? Four? A month?”

Indeed, Tatis finds himself in the midst of -- statistically speaking -- one of the toughest stretches of his career. He was one of the sport’s most notable snubs for a trip to Seattle last month for the Midsummer Classic. Since then, he’s hitting .172.

But, man, has it ever been a loud .172 (if such a thing exists.) Rodríguez’s home run robbery marked the second time in five games that Tatis has had a big fly taken away. The Dodgers’ James Outman did the same to him on Friday night in San Diego.

Tatis’ expected batting average -- a Statcast calculation based on quality of contact -- is a wholly respectable .270 since the All-Star break, 98 points higher than his actual mark.

“I don’t know that anybody’s been as unlucky as him here recently,” said Padres manager Bob Melvin.

Melvin’s not wrong. Entering play Monday, no qualifying hitter had a larger gap between his expected batting average and actual batting average -- and that was before Tatis fell victim to an all-timer of a catch by Rodríguez.

“I knew he caught it,” Tatis said. “I know him very well. But [shoot], I don’t know. I give up.”

To be perfectly clear, the thing that has impressed the Padres most during Tatis’ recent rough patch is the fact that, no, he isn’t giving up -- or anything close to it. Sure, He’s struggling at the plate. But he’s on course for a Gold Glove Award in right field. He’s running the bases hard when he reaches.

And perhaps the biggest testament to Tatis’ evolution: After all the time he’s spent off the field for various reasons during the first four years of his career, he hasn’t missed a game since he returned from his PED suspension in mid-April.

“I think he’s handled it beautifully,” Melvin said of Tatis’ slump. “Every day he comes in positive. He doesn’t want any part of a day off. … I know anybody else would probably be showing a little bit more frustration than he is with the at-bats that he’s taking right now and the lack of success.”

The frustration is plentiful, Tatis says. He just doesn’t see a reason to dwell.

“I wish I had an answer,” he said. “But you’ve just got to keep going. Got to get going. That’s all I’ve got. Grab your glove, go out there and play defense, then come back and have another good at-bat.”

(To that end, Tatis made a brilliant sliding catch in right field to rob Cal Raleigh of extra bases in the seventh.)

There are nits to pick with Tatis’ recent offensive performance. It’s been more than just hard-hit balls turning into outs. He’s chasing too many pitches, particularly low and away.

As superstar power hitters go, Tatis has always been something of a free-swinger. But not like this. Tatis’ 42% chase rate is tied for 15th among all qualified hitters since the All-Star break. That’s notably higher than his 35.3% mark in the first half. So, yes, Tatis probably needs to make an adjustment or two. Of course, throughout his career, he’s proven capable of doing so.

“Frustrating,” Melvin said, when asked to sum up Tatis’ second-half performance. “There are some at-bats where he gets a little antsy and wants to swing a little bit, hit his way out [of his slump]. But for the most part, he’s kind of doing it. And he’s just not getting any luck for it.”