San Diego Padres vs. Atlanta Braves Postseason Game 1 Preview – NBC 7 San Diego

There's an old saying in sports: “Great players make big plays in big games.” Historically, it's true. Patrick Mahomes wins Super Bowls. Michael Jordan won NBA championships.

Applied to baseball, the Padres are in a good position because there are no bigger games than postseason games and Fernando Tatis Jr. tends to thrive in big games. The superstar outfielder has only appeared in the playoffs once. But this one time?

My goodness, was it impressive?

In the 2020 postseason, Tatis Jr. played in six games. He hit .318 with a 1.126 OPS and had a shot so epic it made it on the cover of a video game.

The bat that topped MLB The Show occurred on October 1, 2020… four years to the day, Tatis Jr. will make his postseason return in Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series against Atlanta celebrate bravely. The 25-year-old missed the Padres' 2022 playoff run due to injuries and a performance-enhancing drug suspension. Tatis Jr. says those moments in 2020 were great, but that may have just been a taste.

“I remember a lot of it. Especially the emotions,” says Tatis Jr. “But I’m just looking forward to what we can achieve as a team this year. I feel like I'm part of what I did back then.” This time it will definitely be even better.

That could be a frightening proposition for a Braves club that comes to town about as gassed as a baseball team can be. Atlanta had to play a doubleheader on Monday and win Game 2 to clinch the National League's final playoff spot. Chris Sale, the leading Cy Young Award candidate, is dealing with back spasms and isn't even on the Braves Wild Card Series roster.

Atlanta's pitching staff is so overwhelmed that they start the series with 21-year-old rookie AJ ​​Smith-Shawver on the mound against Padres righty Michael King. The latter has been one of the best pitchers in the National League over the past two months. The former is starting his second big league career.

Everywhere in San Diego people were wearing their Padres gear, you could literally feel the excitement building leading up to the game. Nowhere is it bigger than the East Village. NBC 7's Todd Strain is in the middle of a fan frenzy.

Smith-Shawver is the second-ranked candidate in the announced Atlanta system, but other than that? The Padres are basically going into this game blind.

“We started our research last night. (We) obviously don't have a lot of information on him, but we've done our work to figure out what he does,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “But at the end of the day, that’s what we do. Our boys have been pitching since they were six, seven, eight or ten years old. The ball will come over the plate. We've got to figure out how it comes out and where.” It comes out where it goes and I'm confident our guys will be ready.

As for King, he's very rested heading into his first career postseason. King was scheduled to start in the regular season finale at Arizona, but the Friars held him back for Game 1 and gave him two extra days of preparation. King had success in the second half of the season, posting a 2.15 ERA after the All-Star break, dropping to 1.57 in four starts in September.

Those are the numbers that made King the centerpiece of the offseason trade that sent Juan Soto to the New York Yankees and began the rebuilding of the San Diego Padres.

Perhaps the deciding factor in this series will be the venue. Petco Park has become a massive home-field advantage. The Friar Faithful set a new single-season attendance record in 2024 and recent playoff games in the East Village have been deafening (just ask the Dodgers about the ground shaking in the 2022 NLDS), which brings us back to Tatis Jr.

He always feeds off the energy of the crowd, be it those cheering him at home or those booing him on the street. The games he played in 2020 during the global pandemic only had cardboard cutouts on the seats. Now he can finally experience the playoffs in a packed Petco Park.

“It's going to be loud, just like it's been all season,” said a smiling Tatis Jr. “I'm just looking forward to the energy, and you know what the fans are going to bring.”

First pitch for Game 1 is scheduled for 5:38 p.m. The winner of Tuesday's duel is just one win away from advancing to the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.