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LOS ANGELES — Before 21-year-old Jackson Merrill took the league by storm and 31-year-old Jurickson Profar orchestrated the best season of his 11-year career, there was a position group littered with uncertainty.
When the Padres reported to Arizona this spring, no one knew who’d be joining Fernando Tatís Jr. in the outfield. After trading away Juan Soto and Trent Grisham in December, the only other outfielder on the 40-man roster was José Azocar, who would not make it through the 2024 season with the franchise.
Turns out, all it would take to assemble one of Major League Baseball’s most productive position groups was a $1 million free-agent flier and a top infield prospect.
Profar produced in a career year, finishing seventh in the majors in on-base percentage. Merrill mesmerized in his switch from shortstop to center field, leading all major-league rookies in FanGraphs wins above replacement. And Tatís starred, leading an unheralded outfield group that had suddenly transformed from unsettled to unstoppable.
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On Sunday, that trio’s medley of clutch hits and nifty web gems helped the Padres even the National League Division Series in a 10-2 drubbing of the Dodgers that got ugly late both on the scoreboard and in the stands.
“Wild,” Tatís said. “Oh, man, it’s definitely wild out here. But at the same time, it’s a good environment for baseball, although people get carried away a little bit with their emotions.”
The answers to the Padres’ outfield questions came just before Opening Day.
In February, they brought back Profar, the former top overall prospect who had been a slightly below league average through his first 10 big-league seasons. The answer up the middle came internally in March, when Merrill, then a 20-year-old shortstop who had never played above Double-A or played center field at any point in his professional career, won the competition.
In a stunning development, all three became All-Stars. And in Game 2 of the NLDS, all three starred.
Profar, Tatís and Merrill combined for eight hits, three home runs and a series of spectacular catches that drew the wrath, ire and attention of 54,119 fans on a turbulent evening at Dodger Stadium that ended with fans throwing objects into the outfield and visiting bullpen.
“What I got out of it was a bunch of dudes that showed up in front of a big, hostile crowd with stuff being thrown at them and said, ‘We’re going to talk with our play, we’re not going to back down,'” Padres manager Mike Shildt said “‘We’re going to elevate our game, we’re going to be together, and we’re going to take care of business.'”
At one point in the seventh inning, baseballs, beer cans and debris were hurled from the pavilions toward the direction of San Diego outfielders, leading to a nine-minute delay. None of it stopped the Padres from responding in a heated series.
In fact, the actions in the bleachers seemed to fuel a lineup that launched four of its six home runs on the night after the ignominious display.
“We saw our boy Profar getting balls thrown at him, he has a right to be mad,” Tatís said. “But at the end of the day, we understand we’re on a mission.”
Profar set the stage early before things deteriorated late.
For the second straight night, the Padres jumped on a reeling Dodgers rotation to take an early lead. And for the second straight night, the Dodgers answered back.
Or, so it seemed.
The home run tunes blared from the speakers in the bottom of the first inning as Mookie Betts rounded second and pointed toward the Dodgers’ bullpen during his customer trot around the bases. It wasn’t until Betts rounded second base that he realized Profar — who had spent the past few seconds hopping up and down and staring toward a group of fans in the first few rows who had tried and failed to secure the deep drive to left field — had robbed the homer with the catch of his life.
“I thought that was kind of funny,” Merrill said. “But if [I] was Mookie, I’d be pretty mad.”
Did Merrill know Profar caught it?
“Absolutely not,” Merrill said. “I was like, ‘Dang, 1-1, what are we doing?’ He jumped around, and it looked like he was like, ‘No, no.’ When he threw it in, I was like, ‘Oh my God, what are we doing?’ First inning, we’re going like this? I love it.”
In right field, Tatís wasn’t sure, either.
“I was probably like everybody else, had that question mark until he started jumping back,” Tatís said. “Then he showed the ball. My emotions went through the roof.”
So did those of Dodgers fans, who by night’s end couldn’t contain them.
There were unfortunate interactions throughout the game between the Padres’ outfielders and fans in the pavilions, particularly after the corner outfielders’ dazzling defensive displays.
In the fourth inning, Tatís robbed Freddie Freeman of a double when he stretched out to make a grab. The catch earned claps from starter Yu Darvish on the mound — and a chorus of boos from the bleachers. Tatís danced as the jeers rained down. He said he doesn’t mind anything fans say to him. He will get into the act and go back and forth, too.
But none of the Padres’ histrionics warranted what took place in a shameful seventh-inning display as Dodger fans threw baseballs in Profar’s direction and trash toward Tatís. Profar was incensed, only calming down after his Padres teammates paid him a visit in shallow left field. There were multiple announcements over the PA speakers reminding fans not to throw anything on the field, and at one point stadium security huddled around the Padres outfielders and escorted them away from the disturbance.
“You can yell whatever you want,” Profar said. “Just the throwing stuff, people can get hurt.”
The chaos deterred neither Darvish, who proceeded to put up another zero to close out a seven-inning, one-run gem, nor a Padres offense that seemed to be sparked by the fiasco. After the delay, Machado gathered the team in the dugout and encouraged his teammates to remain locked in, despite the fracas happening around them.
Earlier in the night, Machado was involved in a different quarrel, this one between the lines.
After Tatís — who is 9-for-14 with three home runs to start the postseason — homered and doubled in his first two at-bats, he then got plunked on an 0-1 pitch by Jack Flaherty in a 3-1 game to start the sixth inning. Profar and catcher Will Smith exchanged some words. Machado, who thought Flaherty was throwing at Tatís, was also displeased.
Flaherty said he wouldn’t have purposely tried to hit Tatís in that situation, but tensions brewed nonetheless. After striking out Machado, the Dodgers pitcher yelled some choice words toward the Padres third baseman, telling him to “sit the f— down.” Machado, upon learning what Flaherty said, chirped back. The two would continue trading barbs, at one point appearing to challenge each other to a fight, before night’s end.
As everyone seemed to be losing their cool, the youngest player on the field kept his.
After Machado struck out and Flaherty departed, Merrill won the ensuing lefty-lefty matchup and padded the Padres’ lead with an RBI single. Two innings later, the electrifying rookie delivered the knockout blow with a two-run home run. After finishing the year leading all rookies in hits, batting average and slugging, Merrill has carried his success into October, tallying six hits in his first four career playoff games.
“He’s just going to show up and ball,” Tatís said. “What this kid has done for this team this year is just amazing. His talent is unbelievable, his character. I feel like everybody can see it, what type of baseball player he is.”
On a night overshadowed by some bad actors in the stands, Tatís left them with a parting gift in the ninth, sending another baseball back into the bleachers.
The crowd at Dodger Stadium threatened to derail the performance.
But a surprising Padres outfield once again stole the show.
Now, it’s a series.
“I know we’re about to go back to San Diego with a very, very loud, raucous, aggressive, hungry crowd that’s going to be super excited and going to be getting after it,” Shildt said. “But I know, also, that we’ll stay classy, San Diego.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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Link to Original Article - on Fox Sports