Padres' Fernando Tatis, Manager Question MLB Scoring Officials

San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. and manager Mike Shildt openly questioned a scoring decision which attributed an error to Fernando Tatis Jr. in the sixth inning of Sunday's game against the Seattle Mariners.

Mariners left fielder Randy Arozarena sent a pop fly which Tatis ran 92 feet towards, reaching a top 5% speed in MLB this season among similar runs on his way to the ball. When trying to make the catch, the ball hit his glove, then the floor. Arozarena ended up on second base, and Tatis received an error.

“I don’t want to get into the official scoring business,” Shildt said. “I can tell you I looked up …  later, I was like, ‘Where’d our error come from?’ I went through the game and I was like, ‘I’m still having a hard time finding where the error came from.’ And then I went, ‘Oh, I guess it’s that play.’ I’ll leave it at that.”

Designated hitter Mitch Garver scored Arozarena and the Padres went down by three. The game ended 6-1 in favor of the visitors, and the Padres lost all three games of a series for just the second time this season.

The uproar comes from the MLB's definition of an error ruling, which says that any play charged as an error would have been made by an average player. The argument is that without Tatis' speed, there would be no player's glove for the ball to hit when it dropped.

“It feels like the officials have been against me all year, but we’ll figure it out,” Tatis said. “Randy thought it was a hit. I thought it was a hit. Tough play. Just my speed got me there, but I had to run a lot. So we’ll figure it out.”

This isn't the first disagreement Tatis and Shildt have had with an umpire this season, as umpire Adrian Johnson tossed Tatis after he argued a strike call for his third strikeout of the night, then sent Shildt after him when he threw his glasses and lineup card in frustration.

Tatis isn't sore over either situation though. He is determined to move on and grow.

“Didn’t have a couple pitches going my way,” he said. “But that has been all season. So we’ll just find a way to figure it out.”

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