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Fernando Tatis Jr. hits a 467-foot home run out of Dodger Stadium

Let’s celebrate the mammoth blast

By Felipe Bruce
San Diego Padres v Los Angeles Dodgers Photo by Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres/Getty Images

Fernando Tatis Jr. hit his 42nd home run of the season on Thursday, extending his National League lead. It’s the second-highest single-season home run total in Padres history, behind only Greg Vaughn’s 50 home runs in 1998.

But was important about the Tatis home run is how far it went.

According to Statcast, Tatis’ shot out of Dodger Stadium had an exit velocity of 116.6 mph and traveled 467 feet, which makes it the second-longest home run of his career. The longest was hit in Coors Field on June 16 this season in an 8-7 loss to the Rockies, a Statcast-estimated 477-foot blast.

This is the sixth home run to be hit out of Dodger Stadium, and first since Giancarlo Stanton blasted a 475-footer for the Marlins on May 12, 2015. Previous to that, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire (May 22, 1999), the Dodgers’ Mike Piazza (Sept. 21, 1997), and the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Willie Stargell (twice, Aug. 5, 1969 and May 8, 1973) hit balls out of Dodger Stadium.

Tatis is about to become the first Padres player since Fred McGriff in 1992 to lead the National League in home runs. The Atlanta Braves’ Adam Duvall is second with 38 homers.

Nando is hitting .281/.365/.614 (167 OPS+) with 42 home runs, 97 runs batted in, and 25 stolen bases (on 29 tries). Baseball-Reference’s calculations have him being worth 6.6 Wins Above Replacement this season. His previously best was 4.2 WAR in 2019 (though in just 84 games).

This season, Tatis also became the fifth-fastest player to reach 50 homers, doing so in his 171st game, tied with Ryan Braun. Only Pete Alonso (152 games), Rudy York (153 games), Gary Sanchez (161 games) and Mark McGwire (161 games) slugged their way to 50 sooner than Tatis.

To close this season, Tatis not only did he surpass his father in career stolen bases, but no other player hit 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases as quickly as Tatis Jr. did. It only took him 223 games to hit that number in the majors, 28 games fewer than Ronald Acuna Jr., who was the previous-fastest 50-50 player.

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