Suárez gets three games, managers out one apiece as MLB responds to escalating drama between NL West rivals
Major League Baseball has issued disciplinary actions following a heated finale to the four-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, punctuated by a benches-clearing incident and a flurry of hit batters.
Padres closer Robert Suárez was suspended three games for “intentionally hitting” Shohei Ohtani with a 100 mph fastball during the ninth inning of Thursday’s contest. Suárez, who has also been fined, is appealing the suspension and remains eligible to pitch until the appeal is resolved.
Both managers — San Diego’s Mike Shildt and Los Angeles’s Dave Roberts — received one-game suspensions for “unsportsmanlike conduct and for contributing to inciting the benches-clearing incident.” Managers cannot appeal league discipline, meaning both sat out Friday night.
Sequence of Escalation
The drama reached its boiling point in the top of the ninth when Dodgers rookie Jack Little, making his MLB debut, hit Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. on the hand with a 93 mph fastball. Tatis had already been hit earlier in the series and once more during the teams’ previous meeting a week earlier.
Shildt, visibly furious, stormed the field and shouted toward the Dodgers’ dugout. Roberts, incensed by what he saw as an accusation of intent, confronted Shildt and shoved him, triggering both benches to empty. Both managers were ejected, and Tatis was pulled for precautionary reasons.
Ohtani Drilled, Controversy Ignites
The tension intensified moments later when Suárez hit Ohtani with a fastball on a 3-0 count. Though benches didn’t clear a second time — thanks in part to Ohtani quickly signaling calm to his dugout — the umpires saw enough to eject both Suárez and acting manager Brian Esposito.
Suárez denied any ill intent. “It wasn’t intentional,” he said through an interpreter. “They can say whatever they want. That was not the case.”
Roberts, meanwhile, defended his rookie pitcher: “I’m taking starters out… just trying to get this kid a couple innings. That’s why I took it personal.”
While tempers may cool, the rivalry between the Padres and Dodgers seems to be heating up — one pitch at a time.