Category: Sports News

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.

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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.”

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.”

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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.

Read more:After pregame trade disrupts Giants, Dodgers power their way to series victory

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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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

David Peterson delivered a quality start in his third straight outing, allowing just three runs over seven innings on Tuesday night against the Atlanta Braves. But in the results business of professional baseball, another solid start from the Mets' left-hander is marred by the bitter taste of defeat.

There are positives to take from the performance – allowing just three runs on five hits and three walks with three strikeouts on just 93 pitches – but there are no moral victories after the Mets fell 5-4 in 10 innings, losing their fourth-straight game.

“It’s baseball,” Peterson said. “You could be perfect and then still end up losing the game.” 

“He was really good today,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of his starter. “Got ground balls when needed, attacked, the pace, I thought him and [catcher Francisco Alvarez] were on the same page.

“And for him to get through seven against that lineup pitch efficient, with the way he was at, I thought he was really good. I thought he was solid.”

Peterson said the focus is “attacking guys from the first pitch, trying to get first pitch strikes.” He did just that on Tuesday night, racking up 17 of them to 28 batters. “Fill up the zone a lot and put the pressure on them,” the lefty continued. 

Alvarez said the key was to just keep attacking, which Peterson did, getting the Braves to pound a dozen balls into the ground over the course of the game while managing just seven whiffs and 14 called strikes.

“I felt like we were able to get some early contact, defense did a great job of making the plays,” Peterson said. “I think when we’re in a spot where I can get the punch out, go for that. Other than that, just attacking early, staying on them and putting them in a position where they either gotta try and put the ball in play or at least swing the bat.”

With Peterson coming off a complete game his last time out, Mendoza didn’t hesitate to send out the left-hander for the bottom of the eighth on Tuesday night after efficiently recording the first 21 outs. Unfortunately, Peterson didn’t record another out after that.

“Especially with the way he was throwing the ball, you got a three-run lead there, he’s at 82 pitches with the nine-hole [hitter],” Mendoza said of his thought process. “He walked him there, you still like your chances with getting a ground ball, he was getting a lot of ground balls.”

Peterson said after the game that he felt good coming off the complete game last week and Mendoza added later: “Look, when you got the guy that wants the ball at 82 pitches and you got a three-run lead,” he said, before pausing to shrug his shoulders, “that’s an easy decision, there.”

Peterson said it was “good to be efficient, good to get quick outs, good to keep them off the board for the most part, but I didn’t put us in a good spot at the start of the eighth.”

And in baseball, sometimes things just don’t pan out as Reed Garrett entered and allowed a single to put the tying run on base before conceding a two-strike, two-out bases-clearing double to level the score.

“It just didn’t happen today, we were one pitch, one strike away from getting out of it,” Mendoza said of the home half of the eighth. “Just couldn’t get the job done.”

Fine margins are often the difference between flushing a sweep over the weekend with a solid series-opening win over a division rival and a four-game losing streak. For the Mets, the little mistakes in Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to the Atlanta Braves in 10 innings ended up costing them a game they will come away thinking they should have won.

“It’s a tough one there, it’s a tough loss,” manager Carlos Mendoza said.

The Mets were in position to win because they put up four runs against a pitcher who entered the game having their number in Spencer Schwellenbach – with home runs from Juan Soto and Tyrone Taylor – and after getting seven innings of one-run ball from David Peterson, came one strike away from getting out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth inning. 

But in that eighth, which began with Peterson putting the first two runners on base, the one strike ended up being a bases-clearing double that tied the game as Marcell Ozuna got a thigh-high splitter on the inside corner and just kept it fair down the left field line. The pitch proved to be the costliest of a series of mistakes that proved too costly to overcome.

Catcher Francisco Alvarez said reliever Reed Garrett called for a fastball, but he changed the third 2-2 offering to the splitter. “I think he was right,” the catcher said after the game. “I maybe made a mistake in that situation, so I feel very bad for that. I gotta stay with him, with the fastball.”

Alvarez said he changed the pitch because on the previous pitch, Ozuana just managed to foul away a splitter below the knees with an emergency hack. “He do a horrible swing,” Alvarez said with a smile. “I was thinking we have [a spot] to throw another splitter.”

Garrett said it is “easy to look back and think we threw the wrong pitch, but Alvy called my swing and miss pitch. I could have executed a little bit better, we could have got a little bit more lucky.”

“I thought after the emergency swing [by Ozuna] that he wouldn’t have been on time for the fastball,” the reliever said, explaining why he called for the heater. “Alvy changed it, and I thought that maybe he saw something that I didn’t see. 

“I don’t think it’s the wrong pitch. I don’t think it's the wrong pitch; we have plenty of other options. I just think that if it was executed down a little bit more, it could have been a ground ball.”

Baserunning blunders

On the bases, the Mets had a couple of mistakes that ended up coming back to bite them, two of which were plays where hard-hit balls ended up with runners being doubled up off first base.

The first came in the sixth with the Mets up by three. Pete Alonso was at first base after cracking his second single of the game, and Jeff McNeil hit a sharp liner right at shortstop Nick Allen, who caught the ball and tossed it to first to get Alonso to end the inning. 

“We gotta do a better job there reading the line drive in the infield,” Mendoza said, calling it a baserunning mistake by Alonso for not freezing or retreating toward first a bit.

With the score tied in the ninth, Soto (who was picked off first earlier in the game when he broke for second with the pitcher still on the rubber) was caught off first. Alonso crushed a ball to deep right, but Ronald Acuña Jr. ranged back and made a leaping grab just before the wall. Soto, being aggressive and looking to get to third or better, was near second base when Acuña caught the ball. 

Only Soto didn’t react to the catch and waited for first base umpire Edwin Jimenez to signal out. The problem by the time Jimenez raised his right arm and Soto realized he had to retreat, Acuña had the ball out of his glove and was throwing to first.

“We rely on the umpires, we wait for them to make the call,” Soto said. “...the goal is to look for the umpire and make sure he makes the right call, and I felt like he took way too long to make a decision and he just put me in a tough spot.”

He added of the Jimenez’s call: “He just took forever to do it.”

The skipper called it “not an easy decision” for the base runner. “Kinda in no man’s land, too and Acuña makes a helluva play,” Mendoza said, adding that in his mind the umpire “took a while” to make an out call.

“Juan is kinda waiting and that was my argument there,” he said. “But for the umpire, he’s gotta wait for Acuña to show him the ball before he makes any call, so, in the heat of the moment, it happens fast and you go and argue, but a tough play for Juan, great play for Acuña.” 

Soto called it “part of the game” and something they “gotta learn from.”

“It puts you in a tough spot right there,” he said of the call. “Tie game, I’m trying to at least get to third or score, and then something like that happens. It’s just tough.”

Alvarez throws to second

In the bottom of the 10th after the Mets failed to score in the top half, Mendoza walked Acuña Jr. intentionally to put runners on first and second. Huascar Brazobán got the first out and the Mets had a big chance to steal a second out.

On a ball in the dirt that Alvarez couldn’t backhand cleanly and lost behind him, the runner at second, Luke Williams, broke but then stopped halfway to third. If Alvarez ran at Williams or threw to third, it would have been a rundown and likely the second out. 

Instead, Alvarez quickly tossed to second, and the winning run was at third.

Mendoza called it a “good play by the runner,” realizing quickly that Alvarez was going to second and to break from “no man’s land” to the safety of third base. “Gotta give him credit on that one,” he said.

“That’s your reaction there, you pick up the baseball, you get a runner that is hanging there between second and third and he makes an attempt to go back,” Mendoza said. “As a player, your reaction is you gonna try and get him. [The runner] did a good job and took advantage of it.”

Alvarez regretted his throw, calling it a reaction play to snap throw to second.

With runners at the corners, a walk loaded the bases, and a sacrifice fly to the warning track in deep right-center ended the game.

If the cure for the common slump is a matchup with a vulnerable pitcher, the Yankees couldn't have asked for a better chance to finally bust loose. After putting together a 20-inning scoreless streak in two hitter-friendly ballparks entering Tuesday's meeting with the Angels, their opposition was Kyle Hendricks, owning the second-worst ERA among all qualified MLB starters.

How lucky can one team be?

But it didn't take long for disgruntled fans to realize the team's latest slump can't be labeled as common. Despite the more-than-favorable bout with Hendricks, the Yankees once again struggled to pack a punch, as they fell to the Angels, 4-0, in the Bronx for a third straight shutout loss. Their scoreless streak has reached a confounding 29 innings. Their losing skid has dipped to a season-worst five games.

The lack of rhythm and timing at the plate also wasted a stellar performance from rookie starter Will Warren, who learned the hard way that allowing three runs across six innings with a career-high 11 strikeouts isn't always good enough. He's not alone, though -- Yankees starters have given up just nine earned runs during this five-game slide.

Befitting of a team mired in some deep funk, the Yankees essentially turned Cy Yuck into Cy Young. In six innings against Hendricks, they struck out nine times -- a season-high mark for the veteran right-hander -- and mustered only four hits. Overall, they left six runners on base and went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.

"Baseball. We're one of the best offenses in the league, and had a tough few days. I thought maybe today, pressing a little bit," manager Aaron Boone said after the loss. "We've got to go up and focus on having quality at-bats, and that will happen. We'll get there.... These guys are excellent at turning the page... We'll come in with the right process and really focus on grinding out quality at-bats. And when we start to stack those, we'll take off."

Of course, this dry spell doesn't represent the Yankees as a whole. Their season batting average (.253) still ranks seventh-highest in the majors. Their OPS of .784 is best for second -- the same can be said for their home run total (109). They also scored six runs against the league's ERA leader just last week.

Ain't that a kick in the head?

But they've clearly fallen into a valley, and the mess looks even worse with Aaron Judge enduring his own week of hiccups. Over his last seven games, the Yankees' captain is hitting a measly .125 (3-for-24) with 15 strikeouts. There's no player more entitled to a cold stretch than Judge, but his recent woes can't be shrouded either.

"There's always a certain point where it's not necessarily going your way and you feel it," said Cody Bellinger, who registered the Yankees' lone extra-base hit on Tuesday. "You feel this extra pressure to get the job done. At the end of the day, it's the same game... It's been a wild three games. It's been very frustrating... Obviously, we're not getting the job done. We're going to fight like hell to get the job done tomorrow."

Considering how the Yankees fared against Hendricks, there's no telling how or when they'll break out and resemble their old, dangerous self. But if the cure for this type of slump is a second straight matchup with someone sporting a league-low ERA, they're in luck. Jack Kochanowicz, slated to start for the Angels on Wednesday, is 3-8 with a 5.53 ERA this season.