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Current and former players defend Fernando Tatis Jr. after he hit grand slam on 3-0 count

Fernando Tatis Jr. took the MLB lead with his 11th homer of the season with an eighth-inning grand slam Monday night against the Rangers. If only that was the extent of the story.

By now you probably know that Tatis’ grand slam was somehow controversial because he had the temerity to swing at a 3-0 pitch with his San Diego Padres team up 10-3. Rangers manager Chris Woodward said after the game that his team was unhappy that Tatis chose to swing at the pitch because of the score and Tatis’ own manager Jayce Tingler even agreed with that sentiment.

While Tingler said that Tatis did miss a take sign from the team’s third base coach before hitting the homer, he got the take sign because the Padres were already up seven runs and weren’t trying to run up the score.

Naturally, the defense of Tatis’ violation of baseball’s supposed unwritten code was swift and fierce. Numerous current and former players chimed in on social media to defend the 21-year-old superstar, including Cleveland outfielder Delino DeShields Jr.

DeShields, also the son of a former major leaguer, didn’t take offense to what Tatis did and also noted that bunting to break up a perfect game shouldn’t be offensive to the opposing team either.

Current Cincinnati Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer had no problem with what Tatis did. Neither did Astros pitcher Collin McHugh.

Former players including Ozzie Guillen and Johnny Bench also had no problem with Tatis did. Isn’t the object of baseball to score?

And current Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Colin Poche had the most succinct and indisputable defense of Tatis.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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