Seven times in the last 10 days, the Dodgers and San Diego Padres have faced each other.
In the last inning of the last one of those games Thursday night, mounting tensions between the clubs — and their respective managers — finally spilled onto the field.
At the end of the Padres’ 5-3 win against the Dodgers, San Diego star Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit by a Dodgers pitcher for the third time over the two recent series between the National League West rivals.
Moments later, Dave Roberts and Mike Shildt were face-to-face, engaged in a screaming match that prompted both benches to empty in a heated melee behind home plate.
As soon as Tatis got plunked, taking a 93-mph fastball off his hands from debuting Dodgers rookie Jack Little, Shildt came storming out of the dugout, walking over to check on Tatis while barking in Roberts’ direction.
Whatever Shildt said, Roberts took exception. Suddenly, he was charging onto the field, too, meeting Shildt with a slight bump with his body while their two teams poured onto the field around them.
The scuffle didn’t get overly physical, with some light shoving between the clubs pushing the pile into the screen behind home plate. But emotions were running hot the whole time, with Roberts and Shildt having to be separated before each was ejected.
The fireworks didn’t stop there.
After the Dodgers (46-30) scored twice in the bottom of the ninth, Shohei Ohtani was hit by Padres closer Robert Suarez with two outs. This time, the benches stayed put — in part, it appeared, because Ohtani waved for his teammates to stay in the dugout as he walked up the first-base line. But because the umpires had issued warnings after the previous skirmish, Suarez was ejected, forcing the Padres (40-34) to turn to Yuki Matsui with the tying run at the plate.
Matsui nearly blew it, walking Miguel Rojas (who had been inserted for Mookie Betts the inning before, with the game seemingly out of reach at 5-0) to load the bases before spiking a breaking ball against Dalton Rushing (who had pinch-hit for Will Smith for the same reason) that bounced under the chest protector of catcher Martín Maldonado, plating a run and moving the Dodgers’ other baserunners into scoring position.
Alas, Rushing struck out. The Padres held on. And a heated two-week stretch of rivalry baseball between the Southern California foes came to an end.
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