Tempers Flare but Fists Stay Down as Ohtani, Tatis Jr. Take Hits in NL West Showdown
Four people were ejected, including Dave Roberts and Mike Shildt, the managers.
The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers eventually lost patience with one another in the last innings of their seventh game in 11 days.
The two National League West rivals, who have never been very fond of one another, traded hit batsmen—star hit batsmen—and came dangerously close to fighting during San Diego’s final 5-3 victory.
Eight hitters were hit in the just finished four-game series, for a total of ten hits in the seven games.
When Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. was struck on the right hand by a fastball from Dodgers rookie Jack Little in the ninth inning of Thursday’s series finale, tensions finally began to rise.
After leaving the game, Tatis—who has been struck by Dodger pitchers three times this season—was sent for X-rays, which came back negative.
When the same opponent hits their greatest player that many times, regardless of intent, any team will react, and in fact, retaliation occurred in the bottom of the ninth.
Shohei Ohtani was then struck in the shoulder by Robert Suarez. But Ohtani will make sure that things didn’t get out of hand again.
Before the game was over, Suarez, Padres bench coach Brian Esposito, and managers Mike Shildt and Dave Roberts were all ejected.
To find out the extent of any injuries from the Tatis drilling, a CT scan will be performed on Friday. “I didn’t feel good about Tatis — great player, good guy — getting hit,” Roberts remarked following the match.
“I wasn’t pleased with it. I’m annoyed when [Shildt] comes out and starts yelling at me and looking down at me. Because that’s the last thing I wanted, to be honest.”
“Whether it was [intentional] or it wasn’t, enough is enough,” said Shildt. “We got a guy who’s getting X-rays right now, is one of the best players in the game, fortunately, he’s on our team, and this guy has taken shots, OK?”
But it was Padres third baseman Manny Machado who made the most concerning comments. “They gotta pray for [results] to come back negative tomorrow,” remarked Machado. “They ought to. They certainly should, but so should we.
The Dodgers fell to 46-30 on Thursday, but they are still in first position in the NL West. In the NL, they are one game behind the Chicago Cubs for the best record.
The Padres, currently in third place in the division, are suddenly 40-34 and five games behind the Dodgers. For the third and final NL wild-card slot, they are one game ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers.
Since they don’t play again until August 15–17 in Los Angeles and August 22–24 in San Diego, these two teams will have plenty of time to calm down—or stew on issues.
Despite being outscored 37-35 in those seven games, the Dodgers have a 5-2 edge over San Diego in the season series.
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