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LOS ANGELES — We were reminded on Sunday night that the Dodgers-Padres rivalry isn’t merely geographical and intradivisional. It’s also filled with a history of mutual dislike.
That all, predictably, bubbled to the surface at Dodger Stadium during the Padres’ 10-2 victory in Game 2 of the National League Division Series. A key batter was hit by a pitch, there were words exchanged between opposing players and there was a dangerous situation in which fans hurled objects at Padres players.
“There’s a lot to say,” Dodgers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty said. “First is that the fans should never get involved. There’s no reason ever to throw anything at players, no matter what is going on.”
By the sixth inning, the tone took a sharp turn.
First, Flaherty drilled Fernando Tatis Jr. in the left leg with an 0-1 fastball. Tatis, who hit a homer off Flaherty in the top of the first, took first base. As home-plate umpire John Libka stepped away for a moment, Dodgers catcher Will Smith and the next batter, Profar, began jawing with each other before being separated.
The at-bat ended with a bunt single for Profar that put two men on.
“It was a two-seamer,” Tatis said of the Flaherty pitch that hit him. “The game is on the line. I know my boys have my back the entire time, and everybody saw it tonight.
“There’s too much of an important series just to be throwing at guys. That’s what I understand. That’s what my IQ of baseball is telling me. When he hit me, he just gave me more energy. My boys gave me more energy. “
Flaherty denied trying to intentionally hit Tatis with a pitch.
“Look, I missed in the first inning and I threw the ball over the middle. I wasn’t going to miss over the plate again,” he said. “I have no reason to hit a guy there to start off the sixth.
“I’m going in for effect, and he didn’t get out of the way and it hit him. I wasn’t trying to go and hit him to try and lead off an inning or anything like that. That doesn’t make any sense. Didn’t go up near his head, nothing. Just trying to push a guy off the plate, and he didn’t get out of the way.”
After Profar’s bunt single, Flaherty struck out Manny Machado for the first out and then started yelling at the Padres’ third baseman.
“I was fired up after getting Manny out,” Flaherty said. “It’s a big spot in the playoffs. That’s what happens.”
Flaherty was lifted from the game after the strikeout, but he continued to exchange words with Machado from the Dodgers’ dugout during the rest of the inning.
“[Flaherty] tried to hit our best hitter,” Machado said. “Get him out. If you can’t get him out, don’t hit him. Right? They got the best player in the game, right? Ohtani? We don’t go out there and try to hit Ohtani. We try to get him out. Don’t go out there and try to hit my guy.”
Flaherty accused Machado of throwing a baseball into the Dodgers’ dugout.
“Everybody catches the tail end of it, of me and him going at it, but I was sitting there for my team,” Flaherty said. “He was throwing at our dugout. The umpires went over immediately. I don’t know what their conversation was, but our dugout was fired up because there’s no reason for that.”
Said Machado: “I throw balls all the time into the dugouts. Both dugouts. They have bat boys, you throw the ball back in there.”
Before the bottom of the seventh inning, as the Padres took the field, a fan in the seats along the left-field line launched a baseball toward Profar. The left-field umpire, Adrian Johnson, immediately got between an irate Profar and the seats to prevent trouble.
“I was upset. You can hurt someone,” Profar said. “I hope our people in San Diego don’t do that. I felt safe, but you still don’t do it. It’s not the way.”
Security also intervened quickly. Padres players — along with manager Mike Shildt — gathered on the shallow outfield grass for an extended conversation before another baseball was chucked at Profar.
“We have to stay together in a moment like that as a team,” Tatis said. “And the group we are, we obviously are staying together. And we saw our boy Profar getting balls thrown at him.”
The game was delayed for roughly 10 minutes as order was restored.
“Obviously, we take the players’ safety very seriously,” umpire crew chief Dan Bellino said. “We would never put the players in an unsafe position. We were looking for a higher security presence out in the left-field corner to ensure that that behavior didn’t continue and to make sure that if anybody did throw anything out on the field, they would be identified immediately and removed from the stadium.”
The public address announcer twice warned fans against throwing objects onto the field.
“You can yell whatever you want. But throwing stuff, people could get hurt,” Profar said.
Added Dodgers manager Dave Roberts: “Shoot, I’ve seen over 1,000 games here, well over 1,000 games in this ballpark, and I’ve never seen anything like that. So obviously there’s a lot of emotions and things like that. But that’s something that should never happen.”
Back in April, Profar was at the center of a benches-clearing incident between the two NL West teams after he was nearly hit by a pitch. Smith said after the game that Profar is “kind of irrelevant.” The next day, Profar hit a game-winning bases-loaded double and Padres teammates created T-shirts that said “Relevant,” featuring Profar’s picture.
On Sunday, the Padres responded with four home runs over the final two innings. They included Tatis’ second of the night, in the top of the ninth.
“A hostile environment,” Shildt said. “What I got out of it was a bunch of dudes that 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 going to take care of business.’”
