Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani took a 100 mph fastball to his right shoulder blade in the bottom half of Thursday night’s ninth inning, marking the eighth time a batter had been hit in another tension-filled series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.
Anger filled Dodger Stadium, by which point a sold-out crowd had mostly filed out. Players were ready to spill out of the dugout once more. But Ohtani raised his left hand and vigorously waved off teammates as he made his walk toward first base, clamoring for peace.
The fireworks had already taken place.
A half-inning earlier, Fernando Tatis Jr. took a 93 mph fastball to the right hand from Dodgers rookie right-hander Jack Little. 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. More notably for the Padres, it marked the fifth time the Dodgers had hit Tatis since the start of the 2024 season, including three times over the past nine days.
Padres manager Mike Shildt walked toward Tatis and yelled in the direction of the opposing dugout. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts ran onto the field and shoved Shildt before being separated. Both bullpens and dugouts emptied, though order was restored before punches were thrown.
By the end of the night, two managers, one bench coach (Brian Esposito) and one pitcher (Robert Suarez, whose pitch hit Ohtani) had been ejected. San Diego held on for a 5-3 victory, and afterward, Padres star third baseman Manny Machado, a central character in this rivalry, said 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.”
Tatis wore a bandage on his right hand after the game and sounded dejected when asked how he was feeling.
“Not good,” he said.
Initial X-rays were inconclusive, Tatis said. A CT scan will determine the extent of his injury Friday.
The Dodgers have hit Tatis six times in his career. The 28 other teams have combined to hit him four times, according to ESPN Research.
“Just clean it up,” he said. “I’m here to play baseball.”
The Padres and Dodgers played five tight National League Division Series contests last fall — Los Angeles won the final two games while facing elimination, shutting San Diego out for 24 consecutive innings — but did not meet this season until June. Thursday’s contest marked the seventh time they had played each other in a span of 11 days. The Dodgers took two of three from San Diego last week then three of four at Dodger Stadium this week — and every game seemed to bring with it some animus.
On Monday night, Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages was plunked in the left elbow guard, screamed in the direction of Dylan Cease then later said he felt he was hit intentionally, perhaps because the Padres thought he was relaying signs from second base the prior inning. The following night, Tatis was hit by a Lou Trivino sinker to the upper back in the top of the third and Ohtani got hit in the right leg by a Randy Vasquez fastball in the bottom half, triggering Roberts’ first ejection of the season. Later, Machado took issue with umpires not ejecting Dodgers reliever Matt Sauer when he hit Jose Iglesias in the left wrist after warnings had been issued.
Thursday took the emotions of this series to another level.
Trivino, who also hit Tatis when he led off the game from Petco Park on June 10, struck Bryce Johnson in the knee in the seventh inning. Two batters later, Tatis was brushed back by another Trivino fastball, prompting Shildt to scream in his direction. Tatis getting plunked two innings later, after Roberts had begun to empty his bench while trailing 5-0, set everything off.
Shildt said he wasn’t sure if it was intentional. By now, he said, that’s beside the point.
“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.”
Roberts noted that Little, who sparked the benches-clearing incident when his pitch hit Tatis, was making his major league debut.
“Obviously,” Roberts said, “I think anyone knows there was no intent.”
“And so as [Shildt] comes out, and he’s yelling at me and staring me down, that bothers me,” Roberts added. “Because, to be quite frank, that’s the last thing I wanted. I’m taking starters out of the game, trying to get this game over with and get this kid a couple innings. I took that personal. Because I understand the game, and I understand that it doesn’t feel good to get hit.”
Roberts said he believes the Padres intentionally hit Ohtani with a pitch Thursday night, echoing the sentiments from Tuesday.
“This is a right-handed pitcher going crosscourt to hit Shohei up and in,” Roberts said of the pitch, which came on a 3-0 count. “That’s a hard throw. And I don’t know how many left-handed hitters Suarez has hit with the fastball, but clearly there was intent behind it.”
With the series over, the Dodgers hold a 3½-game lead in the NL West over the second-place San Francisco Giants, who are fresh off acquiring Rafael Devers. The Padres trail by five games.
They won’t see the Dodgers again until August.
“We’re going to get after it for the next two months,” Shildt said, “and they’ll be on the schedule two months from now, and we’ll be ready.”
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