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Batters are hit by four pitches in Dodgers’ 7-4 win over Diamondbacks

Dodgers infielder Justin Turner, batting earlier in spring training, was hit by pitches twice by the Diamondbacks.
(Chris Carlson / Associated Press)
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Bad command or bad blood?

Whatever the case, a series of hit batters resulted in four ejections Monday in the Dodgers’ 7-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Dodgers utility man Justin Turner was struck twice.

“You don’t ever want to get hit in spring training,” Turner said.

Problems started in the top of the first inning when former first-round draft pick Chris Anderson delivered a couple of balls near Aaron Hill’s head. The ever-wild Anderson started in place of Brandon McCarthy, who chose to pitch in a minor league game.

“Their guys were getting pissed and yelling when Anderson was missing up and in,” Turner recalled.

Two batters later, Anderson hit Mark Trumbo.

“I know our kid wasn’t trying to hit Trumbo,” Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said.

Mattingly also said the pitches near Hill’s head weren’t thrown there on purpose.

“I really think Chris was a little amped up,” Mattingly said. “He let go of a few balls that got away in there. We’re going to protect our hitters like everybody else does. But we wouldn’t start that in spring training, and if we were going to start it, we would never do it around the head.”

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In the bottom half of the inning, Turner was hit by Daniel Hudson, prompting the umpires to warn both benches.

Diamondbacks Manager Chip Hale said he wasn’t surprised by the warnings, considering the contentious history between the two teams. The Dodgers and Diamondbacks were involved in a particularly violent brawl in 2013. When the Dodgers clinched the division title that year at the Diamondbacks’ home stadium, they celebrated by leaping into a pool behind the center field wall, drawing the ire of Sen. John McCain.

Hale said Hudson told him he didn’t intend to hit Turner.

Hudson later told reporters the same.

“Probably half the team is new since 2013,” Hudson said.

Turner was hit again in the fifth inning, this time by hard thrower Allen Webster, whom the Dodgers traded in 2012 because of his inability to throw strikes.

Webster was ejected, as was Hale.

There was more trouble in the late innings.

Diamondbacks minor league pitcher Derek Eitel hit Dodgers minor league second baseman Dillon Moyer, resulting in the ejections of Eitel and Diamondbacks bench coach Glenn Sherlock.

EXTRA BASES: Brandon McCarthy pitched five scoreless innings in a triple-A game. … Chris Hatcher and Joel Peralta each pitched an inning in a double-A game. Hatcher served up a home run. … Non-roster left-hander Erik Bedard has a strained back muscle. A similar back injury sidelined Clayton Kershaw for five weeks last season. … Left-hander Daniel Coulombe was optioned to minor league camp.

UP NEXT: San Diego Padres on Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Camelback Ranch. On the air: TV: SportsNetLA. Radio: None.

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