Padres And Dodgers Cleared Benches In 9th Inning After Fernando Tatis Jr. Was Plunked
After a scoreless first inning the San Diego Padres took a one-nothing lead in the second inning thanks to a home run from Xander Bogaerts. He went on to have a very productive game last night in Los Angeles. However, his efforts were overshadowed after things got heated at the top of the last inning. Both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Padres cleared their benches in the 9th inning after Fernando Tatis Jr. was plunked.
It was the final game in a four game series between the two teams and the Padres were looking to not get swept. They have played seven games in the span of 11 days so tensions were running rather high. And tempers boiled over when Dodgers’ pitcher Jack Little hit Tatis on the right hand with a 93 mph fast ball at the top of the final inning. Later that inning Shohei Ohtani took a 100 mph fastball to his right shoulder blade. Marking the eighth time a batter had been hit in another series between the teams. It marked the second time in a span of three days that Tatis and Ohtani had been hit by pitches almost immediately after each other.
After Tatis was hit, Padres manager Mike Schildt walked onto the field yelling toward the Dodgers’ dugout. Dave Roberts, the Dodgers’ manager responded by running onto the field and shoving Schildt. At which point both bullpens and dugouts emptied, but fortunately order was restored before any hands were thrown. After Ohtani was hit, he prevented another bench clearing by holding up his hand and waving off his teammates.
Padres And Dodgers Cleared Benches In 9th Inning After Fernando Tatis Jr. Was Plunked
By the end of the night both managers, Schildt and Roberts, were ejected from the game. Also, bench coach Brian Esposito and pitcher Robert Suarez were also ejected. Suarez threw the pitch that hit Ohtani and Esposito was filling in after Schildt’s ejection. Apparently Little was not ejected because it was concluded that there was no intent on his part to hit Tatis.
Afterwards, Schildt made it clear he was upset about Tatis being hit when playing the Dodgers saying:
“We got a guy who’s getting X-rays right now, is one of the best players in the game, fortunately on our team, and this guy has taken shots, OK?” Shildt said. “And before this series, and I can back this up with complete evidence, the track records speak for themselves — teams that I manage don’t get into altercations like this because teams that I manage don’t throw at people. But also, teams I manage don’t take anything.
“And after a while, I’m not going to take it. And I’m not going to take it on behalf of Tati, I’m not going to take it on behalf of the team, intentional or unintentional. It’s really that simple. That’s how this game is played. And if you want to call that old-school, then yeah, we’ll play old-school baseball.”
As for Tatis, he was taken for X-rays, which were negative, according to a Padres spokesperson. But because of the swelling in Tatis’ hand, follow-up imaging — a CT scan and an MRI — was scheduled for Friday to confirm those results. There was no injury information reported for Ohtani so we assume he’s all right.
Pandemonium Breaks Out In Los Angeles As Padres Battle Dodgers
San Diego was able to hold on for the 5-3 victory, but they lost 2 of 3 games in the prior series and 3 of 4 in this one. However, that didn’t stop third baseman, Manny Machado from expressing his viewpoint, stating the Dodgers had better “pray” Tatis is not seriously injured. “They need to set a little candle up for Tati tomorrow,” Machado said. “Hopefully [the scans] comes back negative. That’s not a good spot to get hit. I don’t care who it is. I don’t care who’s on the mound.” Yikes!
These two teams won’t meet again until August so they have time to let things simmer down… hopefully.
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