Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. receives praise from rival's star

The ever-growing rivalry that has been brewing between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers has made for some very entertaining baseball in Southern California the past few years. 

However, some soft spots in some players on both sides has also made for some equally heartwarming moments as well. 

And during the MLB All-Star Game activities on Monday, another example of that was shown as Dodgers catcher Will Smith, who was selected as the starting backstop for the National League, gave his props to the Padres' Dominican star.

"He's giving 100 percent every time he goes out there, which is cool," said the star catcher. "When he's on, he's better than anybody almost. Everybody is human here. We all have slumps. We all have years we're not performing at our best. I don't know his stats currently, but he deserves to be here."

On a fighting Padres team that still finds themselves dueling with the Boys in Blue for control of the National League West, Tatis is currently boasting a .269 batting average with 16 home runs and 42 runs batted in.

Tatis was one of five players that represented San Diego in the Midsummer Classic, along with third baseman Manny Machado and relief pitchers Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon, and Robert Suarez. 

The Dodgers also had five players represent the team in the Game with Smith, designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, first baseman Freddie Freeman, and starting pitchers Clayton Kershaw and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.