CHICAGO-- "It's like, you're either winning or going home. I ain't trying to go on vacation yet."
There's an uneasy abruptness to the best of three wild card format and Fernando Tatís says he's just not ready for his off-season to start.
Tatís, who finished the regular season on an eight-game hitting streak, slashing .367/.424/.667, was asked about the importance of momentum heading into the playoffs.
"I feel like it definitely matters, especially creating that confidence going to the end of the season, which is really big, and I feel like we have created a good momentum just going into the playoff as an offense."
The Padres finished the regular-season with a three game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks, but even more importantly, they saw a version of Tatís that can carry an offense deep into the postseason. Tatis homered in three of his last four games, and his seven home runs in September tied his season-high, set back in April.
It would be shocking to see any catcher not named Freddy Fermin starting behind the plate in the playoffs but manager Mike Shildt explained his rationale in carrying three catchers on the playoff roster. Martín Maldonado, who was released by the Padres on July 15 and Luis Campusano, who hasn't caught a single game at the major-league level this season is 0-for-21 with 11 strikeouts.
Shildt says the Padres are optimistic that Elías Díaz, who is normally Nick Pivetta's regular catcher, will be better recovered from his left oblique strain should the Padres advance to the divisional playoffs.
"I think we're optimistic moving forward for next round, but yesterday he worked out," said Shildt "He was able to move around enough to where there was a conversation to say, okay, can he go or can he not. But once we talked with medical and even spoke with Elias, he was pretty honest, disappointed, but honest and said, listen, I don't know if I can really go and trust it."
"We know we're at a point where he is with what he's dealing with that he could really be lost for the rest of the year. But we're also at a point where if he got some rest, there's optimism he could be okay moving forward, so that's the route we took."
"Obviously A.J. (Preller) had the final call on it, and we spoke a lot about it and took a lot of opinions about it. It landed where we did with three catches. It impacted Wagner, the left-handed bat. There's a lot of different ways this thing could go. But we really primarily look at Freddy being the guy. Freddy is taking good at-bats and playing well, so that's part of that."
"Maldy obviously is an experienced guy that is a very defensive-oriented guy that can come in and take care of it if we need to, and then Campy can do it as well, but Campy is more -- we look at Campy more of a bat if we need something at some point."