The home clubhouse at Petco Park was on the verge of closing Friday afternoon when Fernando Tatis Jr. strolled through the doors. His left wrist was not wrapped in any way. He’d already undergone additional imaging. Instead of speaking with reporters congregating near his locker, Tatis headed directly to the trainer’s room.
Some 45 minutes later, Padres Mike Shildt addressed the question on everyone’s mind: “The candle worked, man.”
Meaning Tatis had dodged a significant injury in what was the tipping point in Friday’s benches-clearing incident in Los Angeles.
In all, eight players were hit by pitches during the Padres’ emotion-filled, four-game stay in Chavez Ravine. Tatis was hit twice in four days and has been drilled three times this season by the Dodgers, prompting Shildt to storm out of the dugout as trainers tended to his leadoff hitter at the plate to ultimately confront Dave Roberts after a ninth-inning beaning on Friday.
The Dodgers manager met Shildt behind the plate and appeared to shove him at one point as the benches and bullpens emptied onto the field.
Order was restored without any punches thrown. Shildt and Roberts were ejected from the game, both teams were warned and Robert Suarez and bench coach Brian Esposito joined them in their respective clubhouses a half-inning later after plate umpire Marvin Hudson deemed the Padres closer’s beaning of Shohei Ohtani a retaliatory pitch.
The reigning NL MVP waved off the players on his bench to defuse a second incident, but a war of words continued after the game, punctuated by what Padres third baseman Manny Machado said.
“Let’s just hope his CT scan comes back negative,” Machado said Thursday night. “They got to pray it comes back negative tomorrow. You know? Just pray. … They need to set a little candle up for ‘Tati’ tomorrow and hope that everything comes back negative.”
It did, but the fallout extended beyond Tatis’ status as the leadoff hitter and right fielder on Friday against the Kansas City Royals.
Suarez is appealing the length of a three-game suspension, while Shildt and Roberts served one-game suspensions on Friday.
The Padres and Dodgers don’t meet again until Aug. 15 at Dodger Stadium, but after a charged series in which both teams’ stars were hit twice by pitches and the Dodgers manager shoved the Padres manager during a shouting match, Shildt connected another dot while speaking with reporters Friday afternoon at Petco Park:
It was Roberts who ginned up controversy last October, taking exception with a ball that Machado threw toward the Dodgers’ dugout in Game 2 of the NLDS during another emotionally-charged game in Los Angeles. Roberts later said he used the incident — which led a national columnist doubling as a Fox’s sideline reporter to dub it a “sinister sling” and Tatis a “smiling, dancing peacock” — to shift the focus from his players to himself.
Shildt referred to the incident on Friday.
“There’s some history that’s very public with what happened last year with Manny that I took exception to and handled that very privately,” Shildt said. “This got to be more public. And it’s ultimately about the defense of our team, and anybody that is going to take the steps that I feel are inappropriate against our team, then I will take action.
“ … I’m not a grudge guy, but I am a foxhole guy.”
Asked to clarify when and how he addressed the NLDS incident with Roberts, Shildt said: “That’s water under the bridge. I handle my things privately.”
But not on Thursday.
Shildt was pointing at Roberts as he came out of the dugout after Tatis was hit for the third time in seven games this year against the Dodgers. Roberts met him behind the plate, bumping into him as umpires, players and coaches attempted to keep the two separated.
At one point, Roberts could be heard yelling “we’ll talk later” toward Shildt.
“I think anyone knows there was no intent there,” Roberts said of the pitch that hit Tatis in the ninth inning on Thursday. “I didn’t feel good about Tatis — great player, good guy — getting hit. … (Shildt) comes out, and he’s yelling at me and staring me down. That bothers me.”
A day later, both managers addressed their suspensions and the fallout of another charged series in arguably the majors’ hottest rivalry.
“I support it,” Roberts told reporters in Los Angeles. “I think that obviously, I never want to make the game about the managers. It shouldn’t be. It should be about the players and winning.”
Added Shildt: “I understand it. I accept my responsibility in it, and I’ll serve my game tonight, and we’ll move on.”
Then again, that’s easier with Tatis back in the lineup after Thursday’s scare.
“Lit the candle,” Shildt said “ … Very thankful and grateful that no fractures or anything that showed up on any imaging. … He’s sore, but he said he wants to go compete.
“He’s a tough dude.”
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