An MVP moment for Tatis

Unlike last week, and maybe the week before that, San Diego can wake up on Sunday morning with a smile on their face. It was a good Saturday for (most of) our teams. Let's talk about it.

San Diego Padres

After a long rain delay, the Padres took on Pirates in Pittsburgh and never really looked sharp. Randy Vasquez scattered 6 hits and 5 walks over 5 innings, but only ended up giving up 1 run.

Still, it felt like that might be enough for the Pirates to win because the Padres offense was dead in the water against Bailey Falter until Manny Machado hit a solo HR in the 7th inning to tie the game at 1-1.

Heading into the 9th inning of a long game attended by a sparse crowd and played in dismal weather, Fernando Tatis Jr. had a superstar moment. He decided that he was going to win the game for the Padres, no matter what it took, and he still managed to stay within himself and not do too much.

Leading off the 9th inning, in a tie game, you would assume Tatis would be looking for something to hit over the fence. After all, this will be his last chance to do so. Instead, he took what the pitcher gave him and ended up hitting a groundball between the infielders and into left field.

But just because he didn't want to do too much with his bat doesn't mean Tatis couldn't use his legs to win the game, and that's what he ended up doing.

Tatis ran so hard out of the box that the groundball to left field, and not the kind that bounces around in the corner, turned into a double. It was a close play, but he made it. Safe at 2nd. In scoring position.

Luis Arráez made contact in his at-bat, but it was a groundball to the left side that kept Tatis from advancing. 1 out.

Tatis stole third during Machado's at-bat, but it looked like he might be stranded after Manny struck out. 2 outs.

With Xander Bogaerts up, David Bednar threw a wild pitch that only bounced about a foot away from the plate. For a normal baseball player, this is not enough time to run home from third and score the game-winning run. But this is Fernando Tatis Jr.

MVP seasons are filled with MVP moments. Stories that fans and players talk about that separate the really good players from the special ones. This was one of those moments.

And while Robert Suarez struggled to throw strikes in the final inning, his infield defense bailed him out and ended the game on a double-play.

The Padres finished the game with just 3 hits (and 2 walks) against 9 strikeouts. Two of those hits were Tatis' double to start the 9th and Manny Machado's solo HR in the 7th. And, yet, the Padres found a way to win on Saturday. Their reward is another game this morning, starting at 10:30am PT on Sunday.

San Diego FC

San Diego FC, after losing three straight games and looking like an expansion team that couldn't get past their own mistakes, played their best game of the season against FC Dallas at Snapdragon Stadium.

I want to go back and rewatch this game because, in real-time, I'm not sure what SDFC did better than they have in past games besides just not making mistakes.

They seemed to play the same style they've been going with, with a lot of the same players, but it all seemed to work flawlessly against an FC Dallas team that's pretty good.

Hirving "Chucky" Lozano had a special night, scoring 2 goals and assisting 2 other goals. He seemed to be in complete control of the game any time SDFC was in the attacking third, which eventually led to open looks for guys like Anders Dreyer, Onni Valakari and Milan Iloski.

This was SDFC's first real opportunity to "park the bus" with a big lead and they did well, even attacking and adding to the lead when they saw opportunities to do so.

After a few weeks of figuring it out, this game put SDFC back on the map as one of the better teams in MLS. Now everyone can breathe a sigh of relief.

Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers got smoked on the road by the Denver Nuggets in game 7 of their NBA Playoffs matchup. And this wasn't like one of the earlier games where the Nuggets caught fire in front of their home crowd, the Clippers were actually bad.

James Harden and Norm Powell combined to score 16 points in 67 minutes. Outside of Zubac, nobody on the Clippers had more than 5 rebounds. The Nuggets had six players score 15 points or more and LA had one (Kawhi).

I watched this Clippers playoff run very closely, rooting for them, and even I turned this game off about halfway through the third quarter when the Denver lead ballooned to 30 points and LA had no counter-punch.

The matchup between the Nuggets and Thunder is going to be a fun one to keep an eye on, but I think Denver is doomed by the fact that their biggest weakness (depth) happens to be OKC's strength.

It could've maybe been balanced out if OKC had a long series in the first round and Denver did not, but it has been the opposite. The Thunder have been sitting at home and waiting while the Nuggets had to go into energy reserves to put away the Clippers.

As for the Clippers, they're still tied to Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. That means that there is just as good of a chance of their playoff hopes being blown up each year as there is a chance of them making it all the way to the NBA Finals. Maybe a better chance, actually. And that proved true for them again this season.

Coming up today

Padres at Pirates, 10:35am PT

Wave vs. Bay City FC, 5:00pm PT

Pacers at Cavaliers, 3:00pm PT (Game 1)

Warriors at Rockets, 5:30pm PT (Game 7)