SAN DIEGO -- The sport isn't changing. It already has changed. That was the takeaway from the response to Fernando Tatis Jr.'s authoritative bat flip Thursday night, which put an exclamation point on the Padres' comeback victory over the Cardinals in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series.

Five years ago, Mitch Moreland and Jayce Tingler were in the opposing dugout when José Bautista authored perhaps the most famous postseason flip of all time, after his three-run homer helped the Blue Jays knock the Rangers from the 2015 postseason.

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It rubbed Moreland the wrong way then. Now, he says he has come to understand the unbridled emotion that characterizes the way baseball is played in 2020.

"It's just a different game now," Moreland said. "It's a new time. I don't know if you'll ever see me flip one like that. But it's just different now. It's a different type of entertainment. It seems like it's happening more and more all around the league. It's just the new baseball."

But what about the way Moreland felt in 2015?

"That was a long time ago," Moreland said with a smile.

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The way the discourse has changed, it feels like eons ago. Tatis' bat flip was met almost exclusively with an acknowledgement of what it was -- unadulterated joy from a player who had helped his team stave off elimination in a dramatic playoff game.

"Since I was a kid, that's what we play for," Tatis said.

Regarding the bat flip, he added: "It was just the momentum of the game."

And even from the opposing dugout, Matt Carpenter gets that.

“If there was a poster child for what the game is trending toward, I think you saw it yesterday with Tatis,” said Carpenter, the long-time Cardinals infielder. “Look, that’s not how necessarily I am personally, but I have no issue with it in the game. If you’re a good player, and you celebrate on the field, and if that’s what people want to see and watch, more power to you. … I’d rather we not give up home runs to him so he has the opportunity to do that. That would be nice today. I think the celebrations in the game of baseball, that’s just part of it now.”

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Cardinals manager Mike Shildt was asked about the Padres' emphatic celebrations on Thursday, but he mostly declined to discuss them in an effort to keep the focus on his own group.

"We manage our own group, we play to the style of how we play," Shildt said. "Everybody’s got their own interpretation. There used to be a little more defined line, but that line has pretty much washed away. … Do I like it? Candidly, I pretty much ignore it."

As for Tingler, the Padres manager who served as the Rangers' field coordinator in 2015, he’s ready to move on from the discussion entirely.

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"It's weird that it's still a conversation, honestly," he said. "Nobody's showing anybody up. It’s energy, it's raw, it's real. They're playing the game, and they're firing up their teammates.

“We play the game right, play it with energy, have a ton of fun, play it with passion. These are all plus-plus qualities in the game. We value those things. That’s great. We want people to be themselves. That’s where we’re at. Whatever people say, we’re going to have critics. That’s fine. We’re pretty comfortable with who we are.”

Clevinger, Lamet optimism
The Padres' two ailing aces are still hoping for an October return to the mound. That is, of course, contingent upon their health and upon whether the Padres can advance past the Wild Card Series.

Mike Clevinger (right elbow impingement) and Dinelson Lamet (right biceps tightness) both played catch again on Friday, though Tingler wouldn't speculate on the status of either.

"They both had positive days," Tingler said. "We need to stack a couple more positive days. It really is pointless to predict or get into it. I would love to be talking about that situation tomorrow."

Lamet has not thrown a bullpen session since he sustained his injury a week ago in San Francisco. Clevinger threw one on Tuesday, but the Padres opted not to include him on their Wild Card Series roster, "both for the short-term and the long-term" health, general manager A.J. Preller said earlier this week.