NEW YORK — His first grand slam changed baseball and gave birth to Slam Diego.
Perhaps one day, the bases-loaded line drive Fernando Tatis Jr. launched some 444 feet through a dark afternoon in Queens on Sunday will be remembered as the slam that saved a season.
This one at least lifted the shadow of another Groundhog Day, continuing what would end up a six-run seventh inning and helping secure a 7-3 Padres victory that averted a three-game sweep by the Mets. (Box score.)
The win was just the Padres’ fourth in 14 games.
The homer was Tatis’ second in two days and 19th of the season, putting him in the National League lead. It was his third career grand slam and second of the season.
The first slam of his career, Aug. 17 at Globe Life Park in Texas, came on a 3-0 pitch with the Padres up seven runs in the eighth inning. It angered the Rangers and many baseball traditionalists who wagged a proverbial copy of the “unwritten rules” and said Tatis should not have been swinging.
The overwhelming result of that “controversy” was that MLB seemed to intensify its embracing of its exciting young players. Tatis has since starred in commercials for national brands themed around his rewriting rules and graces the cover of the MLB The Show 21 video game.
That Aug. 17 game also stopped a losing streak at five games, was the first of a major league-record four straight games in which the Padres hit grand slams and started a seven-game winning streak, as the team went on to finish with the majors’ third-best record and its first playoff appearance in 14 seasons.
The Padres can only hope his Sunday heroics lead to a similar shift of fortune.
They will likely need to start getting more than one hit per game when a base runner has advanced beyond first base. They were 1-for-5 in such situations Sunday to run their club-record streak to 14 games without multiple hits with runners in scoring position.
For now, they will be grateful the big seventh inning altered the trajectory of another game that to that point had a deep sense of déjà vu and helped them stave off what would have been a season-high fifth straight loss.
For the second time in 10 days, the Padres began a game against left-hander Joey Lucchesi by scorching balls their former teammate threw, including a home run.
As Manny Machado had done in the first meeting, Tommy Pham did Sunday. The only Padres player hitting very much at all of late, Pham blasted the third pitch of the game 424 feet to center field. The Padres hit two more balls with an exit velocity of at least 98.7 mph in the first inning, two of them singles and the final one an inning-ending double play grounder.
And then, as had happened June 4 at Petco Park, the Padres could hardly touch Lucchesi, who made 58 starts for them over the previous three seasons before being traded as part of the three-team deal that brought Joe Musgrove to San Diego in January.
Lucchesi didn’t confound them as long as Jacob deGrom or Marcus Stroman had the previous two days. But his five innings got him far enough that a two-run homer by Jose Peraza in the fifth inning put him in line to get the win.
Then the Mets bullpen helped Padres starter Chris Paddack get rewarded for the six innings in which he allowed just two runs. Paddack allowed six hits and struck out nine in posting his fourth quality start in his past five outings.
With Jeurys Familia working his second inning in place of Lucchesi, Eric Hosmer walked to start the sixth before pinch-hitter Jake Cronenworth singled and both were bunted over by Webster Rivas. Trent Grisham, pinch-hitting, followed with a strikeout for the second out.
Jurickson Profar, the third pinch-hitter of the inning, drew an eight-pitch walk to load the bases, and Pham then took four straight pitches out of the zone for his second RBI of the game.
That brought in right-hander Jacob Barnes and brought up Tatis, who sent a 2-1 cutter well into the seats at 112.2 mph.
Manny Machado followed with his ninth homer of the season.
The Mets added a run off Emilio Pagán in the eighth before Mark Melancon pitched a perfect ninth.
