If the intent of the Dodgers followers who threw two baseballs at San Diego Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar and a water bottle, beer can and different particles at proper fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. throughout a prolonged seventh-inning delay was to intimidate the visiting workforce on Sunday night time, it backfired spectacularly.
“I mean, we scored, what, six runs after that? Five? Four? I don’t know,” Padres third baseman Manny Machado mentioned with a smile. “It was six? Yeah, maybe it fired us up.”
The Padres held a three-run lead in Recreation 2 of the Nationwide League Division Sequence when play was halted and umpires labored with stadium safety officers to decrease the temperature amongst a number of unruly followers within the left-field and right-field corners.
When play lastly resumed, San Diego right-hander Yu Darvish, who spent a lot of the delay crouched behind the Dodger Stadium mound, retired three straight batters after issuing a leadoff stroll within the backside of the seventh to shut a seven-inning, three-hit gem during which he held red-hot Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani hitless in three at-bats.
The Padres then pounded 4 of the six dwelling runs they hit Sunday night time within the last two innings, Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts hitting back-to-back photographs in a three-run eighth and Kyle Higashioka and Fernando Tatis Jr. clearing the fence throughout a three-run ninth, because the Padres pulled away for a 10-2 victory.
Not solely did the blowout win even the best-of-five collection at one sport apiece, it swung momentum considerably towards the Padres, who return to Petco Park for Video games 3 and 4 and can have a determined pitching benefit in Recreation 3, when their ace, right-hander Michael King, opposes diminished Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler.
“What I got out of this,” Padres supervisor Mike Shildt mentioned, “is we have a bunch of dudes who showed up in front of a big, hostile crowd with stuff being thrown at them and said, ‘We’re going to talk with our play; we’re not going to back down; we’re going to elevate our game; we’re going to be together, and we’re gonna take care of business.”
To be honest, the Padres did as a lot speaking with their mouths as they did with their bats. Machado and Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty jawed at one another a number of occasions, Flaherty first hurling an expletive towards the Padres star after he struck out Machado with two on within the prime of the sixth.
The 2 then barked at one another within the backside of the sixth after Flaherty accused Machado of throwing a ball into the Dodgers dugout between innings. Machado was additionally mad at Flaherty for hitting Tatis with a 92-mph sinker to begin the sixth.
San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. celebrates after hitting a two-run dwelling run within the ninth inning Sunday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Instances)
Tatis, who has a .625 regular-season common (5 for eight) off Flaherty with one homer and three doubles, hit a solo homer to left area off Flaherty within the first inning Sunday night time and a 111.7-mph double to left within the third.
“I was fired up after getting Manny out — it’s a big spot in the playoffs, that’s what happens, oh well,” Flaherty mentioned, including in regards to the ball getting thrown within the Dodgers dugout: “Everybody catches the tail end of me and him going at it, but I was sitting there for my team. I wasn’t going to go at him.”
Machado claimed he wasn’t making an attempt to taunt the Dodgers.
“I throw balls in both dugouts all the time — they have foul balls, you throw the ball back in there,” Machado mentioned. “But when you try to hit our best hitter … you can’t get him out, don’t hit him, right? They have the best player in the game in Ohtani. We don’t try to hit Ohtani. We try to get him out. Don’t go out there and try to hit my guy.”
Flaherty mentioned the pitch that hit Tatis within the left thigh was not intentional.
Dodgers third baseman Manny Machado talks with the umpires through the sixth inning on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
“Look, I missed in the first inning and threw the ball over the middle — I wasn’t going to miss over the plate again,” Flaherty mentioned. “I have no reason to hit a guy there to start off the sixth. As good as he’s been, we were down in the game, I’m going in for effect, he didn’t get out of the way, and it hit him.
“I wasn’t trying to lead off the inning by hitting him. That doesn’t make any sense. I didn’t go up near his head. I was just trying to push a guy off the plate, and he didn’t get out of the way. Sometimes that happens, and they were upset about it.”
Machado wasn’t shopping for Flaherty’s clarification.
“You hit Tatis with a sinker after he’s two for two with a bomb and a double off of him?” Machado mentioned. “I mean, I’ll let you guys decide that.”
Tatis, who celebrated his ninth-inning homer with an epic bat flip, an extended stare into his dugout and a deliberate trot across the bases, took a extra diplomatic method than Machado when requested in regards to the pitch that hit him.
“I know my boys have my back the entire time, and everybody saw it tonight,” he mentioned. “But we’re playing baseball. It’s too early in the game to be doing stuff like that. It’s too important of a series to be throwing at guys. That’s what my baseball IQ is telling me.
“When he hit me, he just gave me more energy. My boys gave me more energy. And I know from there, we were just going to embrace that moment and take that energy and use it to play baseball the way we did tonight.”
