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A testy four-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres culminated in a ninth-inning brawl Thursday, sparked by a Fernando Tatis Jr. hit-by-pitch.
With the Dodgers down three runs in the eighth inning, the team brought in rookie Jack Little for his MLB debut. It wasn't the smoothest debut for the right-hander, who allowed four hits, two earned runs, a walk and, crucially, that HBP.
Little left a pitch high and inside on Tatis on a 1-1 count, hitting the two-time All-Star on the right wrist. In many games, that would be chalked up as a bad pitch by a nervous rookie who clearly didn't have his command. But in a series that had already seen six hit-by-pitches, some of them clearly retaliatory, the Padres saw it as one last shot before the two teams part ways until mid-August.
Padres manager Mike Shildt immediately walked onto the field and berated the Dodgers dugout as he approached his player. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts came out to, er, discuss the matter with his colleague.
Cue benches clearing and a lot of shoving.
The brawl resulted in Roberts being pushed into the netting behind home plate while yelling, "We'll talk later!" at Shildt, according to the Dodgers broadcast.
The incident resulted in Shildt and Roberts both getting ejected and Tatis exiting the game for pinch runner Trenton Brooks. Per The Athletic's Dennis Lin, X-rays on Tatis' wrist came back negative, but the right fielder said he was feeling "not good" and that results so far were "kind of inconclusive." He is reportedly scheduled for a CT scan and MRI on Friday.
The Padres took a five-run lead into the bottom of the ninth, so of course they decided to retaliate by having closer Robert Suarez throw at Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani. Suarez was quickly tossed from the game, while Ohtani waved off a few unhappy members of the Dodgers dugout from further escalating the conflict.
The Ohtani HBP actually left the Dodgers in an awkward situation, as it put the tying run at home plate with two outs in the ninth with their 2-3-4 hitters — usually Mookie Betts, Will Smith and Freddie Freeman — due up and the Padres having to bring in a new reliever. That would've been cause for hope, except Roberts had pulled his 2-3-4 hitters for Miguel Rojas, Dalton Rushing and Kiké Hernández in the eighth inning.
Rojas drew a walk against Yuki Matsui, and a balk on a ball that went behind the catcher's chest protector set Rushing up for a game-tying hit, but the rookie struck out swinging on a full count to end the game.
The Padres won 5-3.
After the game, Shildt complained about the number of times Tatis has been hit against the Dodgers (six in 67 games), via MLB.com's A.J. Cassavell:
“Enough’s enough,” he said. “Intentional, unintentional, the fact of the matter is I took exception with it.”
For his part, Roberts said Tatis getting hit was "the last thing I wanted," but he also took issue with Shildt's on-field tirade against him, via The Athletic's Fabian Ardaya:
"I felt that he was trying to make it personal with me. Which then, I take it personal."
Meanwhile, Padres third baseman Manny Machado threatened more violence after the game, should Tatis' hand be seriously injured:
"Let's just hope the CT scan comes back negative. [The Dodgers] gotta pray it comes back negative tomorrow. They better put out a candle."
The win salvaged the series for the Padres, who lost the first three games of the week, as well as two of three in a series against the Dodgers last week. The total HBP count: two for Ohtani, two for Tatis, two for Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages, one for Jose Iglesias and one for Bryce Johnson.
The 46-30 Dodgers still sit in first in the NL West, 3.5 games ahead of the San Francisco Giants and five games ahead of the Padres. It was an eventful day overall for Los Angeles, which saw an appearance by Department of Homeland Security agents in the morning and starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto lose an immaculate inning on a clearly blown call.
