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Dave Roberts made it only three steps out of the dugout when he got ejected Tuesday night.
Before he went back, the Dodgers manager made sure to get his money’s worth.
On a contentious night that saw two superstars get hit by pitches, both dugouts receive umpire warnings, and the Dodgers eventually beat the San Diego Padres 8-6 at Dodger Stadium, tensions reached their boiling point in the bottom of the third inning.
And it was the usually even-keeled Roberts whose emotions burned hottest.
After Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit by a pitch in the top of the third by Dodgers reliever Lou Trivino (the second time in two weeks that has happened), reigning National League MVP Shohei Ohtani was hit in the leg with one out in the bottom half of the inning.
The Dodgers say Nezza is welcome back at Dodger Stadium even though she says someone told her she was banned after performing the national anthem in Spanish.
Unlike Tatis’ hit by pitch, which came with a runner in scoring position in an inning that saw the Padres score two runs, Ohtani’s plunking occurred amid more suspicious circumstances.
With one out and nobody on base, Padres starter Randy Vásquez threw an inside, knee-high heater for ball one, brushing Ohtani back off the plate. With his next pitch, Vásquez fired it even more inside, pelting Ohtani’s right thigh with a 94 mph fastball.
Afterward, both Vásquez and Padres manager Mike Shildt insisted the throw wasn’t intentional. “Just trying to make quality pitches and fight for the inner part of the plate, and a ball got away,” Shildt said.
Ohtani was not made available to reporters to discuss the situation.
But in Roberts’ postgame address, he declared he “absolutely” thought it was intentional.
“Vásquez took one shot at him, and then hit him again. It’s very hard to miss that bad with a right-handed pitcher,” Roberts said. “For me, if they feel that’s warranted on their side, that’s part of baseball. That’s what they feel. And I give him credit because they hit him in the leg. Own it, and we move on. But it’s not a misfire. I do feel it was intentional.”
1. Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. is hit by a pitch thrown by Dodgers pitcher Lou Trivino in the third inning. 2. Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani reacts after being hit by a pitch thrown by Padres pitcher Randy Vásquez in the third inning. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
What really set Roberts off, however, was what happened after the umpires gathered for a meeting.
Crew chief Marvin Hudson emerged from the huddle and issued warnings to both dugouts. Roberts immediately asked for an explanation, raising his arms in confusion as he started onto the field.
Hudson motioned to Roberts to stay put. But when he didn’t, third base umpire Tripp Gibson did the honors of ejecting him from the game.
“He can’t argue the warnings, so we had to get rid of him,” Hudson later told a pool reporter. “He had to be ejected.”
Initially, Roberts said he wasn’t aware he had been ejected. But once Hudson informed him that Gibson had already tossed him, Roberts unleashed the type of tirade that’s been rare during his 10-year managerial career.
He angrily pointed at Gibson multiple times while pleading his case. He was physically shielded by Hudson from confronting Gibson face-to-face. And only after stomping around for almost two full minutes did Roberts finally retreat, trudging back to the clubhouse with a scowl on his face.
“I didn’t feel a warning on both sides was warranted, number one,” Roberts said. “I wanted an explanation on their thought process. I didn’t come in hot. I just wanted to know why, why they issued [the warnings].”
Roberts also expressed frustration with the fact that, after he was ejected, Shildt was allowed to walk onto the field to discuss the warnings with the umpire crew.
“I think what anyone wants is consistency, right?” Roberts said. “For me, I wanted an explanation of what’s going on for their decision-making. And I got run. ... And then, I see the opposing manager get the same courtesy of an explanation and he stays in the game. So there’s just no consistency with that.”
Hudson’s explanation for why Shildt was granted a discussion: “He just asked about the warnings. He asked about pitching inside. I said, ‘We’re not taking that away.’ And he left.”
In what has quickly become a heated rivalry series, there were more fireworks to follow.
In Monday’s series-opener, tempers flared when Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages was hit by a Dylan Cease pitch and immediately stared at the Padres pitcher. In the heat of that moment, cameras caught Shildt yelling from the dugout, “Who the [expletive] do you think you are?”
A night later, Pages provided a resounding answer with a four-for-four performance at the plate. The second-year slugger belted a go-ahead home run in the bottom of the second inning. He launched a tying shot in the fourth. Then, after Will Smith put the Dodgers (45-29) in front with a two-run homer at the end of a 12-pitch at-bat in the sixth, Pages added an RBI single in what became a five-run rally, helping catapult the team to an 8-3 lead.
“I have a lot of confidence in the work I’m putting in,” said Pages, who raised his batting average to .293 and continued to build his case to be an All-Star selection. “I have a lot of confidence in my plan, what I’m doing at the plate to prepare for the games, and finding pitches in my zone and hitting them as well as I can.”
As for Shildt’s dugout comments the night before, Pages offered a diplomatic answer.
“Yeah, I actually saw it this morning,” he said. “Obviously, didn’t pay much attention to it. I left yesterday’s game behind, and I focused on today.”
Teammate Max Muncy, on the other hand, offered a more pointed response.
“I think Andy spoke for himself today,” Muncy said. “I think Andy told him who he was today.”
Shohei Ohtani the pitcher, the Dodgers learned, isn’t as playful as Ohtani the hitter. He snarls. He barks. He’s emotional, even downright combative at times.
More controversy around the umpires arose in the seventh, as the Padres (39-33) threatened to erase the Dodgers’ lead.
First, Dodgers reliever Matt Sauer hit Padres shortstop Jose Iglesias with a pitch, but was not ejected — despite Manny Machado taking a couple steps out of the dugout to yell at the umpires, given their earlier warnings.
It ended up not mattering, with Trenton Brooks coming off the bench for a pinch-hit home run in the next at-bat.
Then, the Padres caught a break when Tatis was initially called out on a fielder’s choice play at second base, only for home plate umpire Ryan Blakney to intervene.
Tatis had initially slid in safely when shortstop Mookie Betts dropped a flip throw from second baseman Tommy Edman, who made an impressive diving stop in the hole. As Betts retrieved the loose ball, however, Tatis stepped off the bag, apparently thinking time had been called. Betts quickly tagged him, and Hudson, the second base umpire, called him out. But moments before the tag, Blakney had called time from behind home plate, to the chagrin of Smith.
“Why you call time [right there]? I don’t know,” Smith said. “But he did. So we had to deal with it.”
Deal with it, the Dodgers just barely did.
Andy Pages hits a three-run home run and the Dodgers get just enough from Dustin May and their bullpen to hang on for a 5-4 win over rival San Francisco.
Tatis was allowed to stay on second, and eventually came around to score when Michael Kopech entered the game and stumbled on a throw with the bases loaded, resulting in a run-scoring balk.
Kopech, however, got Xander Bogaerts to ground out and retire the side. From there, the Dodgers held on, with Anthony Banda stranding the bases loaded in the eighth and Tanner Scott (pitching a third-straight day for the first time this season) collecting his 14th save.
“We all understand how important this is,” Banda said. “The emotions are high. They’re always going to be high in this type of playoff atmosphere. The fans were into it. Everybody was loud. It was fun to be a part of.”
Echoed Roberts: “It was a fun game, unfortunately, to watch from my office. But our guys really played well. … Huge win.”
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