LOS ANGELES -- For every split-second that Andy Pages continued his staredown of Dylan Cease, the possibility of Dodgers-Padres fireworks seemed to increase exponentially.
Players from both sides jumped the railings of their dugouts and scowled at each other from the warning-track dirt. Both managers made their way toward the plate umpire. The bullpen gates opened, and both relief corps readied to enter a potential fracas.
And Cease, at the center of it all? He stood on the mound with a bemused and baffled look on his face. Then he shrugged. Intent? In that spot? With the top of that Dodgers lineup looming?
“I didn’t understand it,” Cease said of Pages’ reaction. “It’s not going to deter me from throwing inside. I don’t know if I’ve ever hit a Dodger before. [He hadn’t.] It just happens. It’s part of the game.”
Nothing came of the incident -- other than a free baserunner for the Dodgers that would prove extremely costly to the Padres in their 6-3 loss at Dodger Stadium. Tensions settled. The story of the night was ultimately Shohei Ohtani’s return to the mound (and his big night at the plate).
But, hey, don’t rule out those fireworks.
After the game, Pages maintained he believed he’d been plunked intentionally. He told reporters in Spanish, including ESPN’s Alden González, that he believed he may have been hit because the Padres might’ve thought he was relaying signs from second base after his first at-bat. Still, Pages afterward indicated that he might’ve overreacted.
“I reacted on adrenaline,” he said in Spanish. “What happened, happened. I tried to find a way to apologize.”
Cease and the rest of the Padres maintained it wasn’t intentional, and Manny Machado took it one step further.
“They got way more superstars over there if we want to hit somebody,” Machado said. “They’ve got some big dogs over there we could hit. This game is crazy, right, this rivalry. It’s back and forth. Playing this competition, things get heated. You want to go out there and compete. He’s having a helluva year. He’s going to continue having a helluva year. Rooting for him, but it’s just part of the game.”
This wasn’t quite Will Smith calling Jurickson Profar “irrelevant” after a similar incident last season, in which Profar also voiced his displeasure after a perceived purpose pitch. But it did have echoes of that. Machado went out of his way to compliment Pages afterward. (And, as Machado noted, Pages is in the midst of a career year with 13 homers and an .806 OPS.)
Neither manager made too much of the situation (though neither manager appeared yet to be aware of Pages’ contention of relaying signs).
“No, I don’t think it was intentional,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It just never feels good to get hit on the arm by 100 [mph], so I think Andy was just more frustrated. I don’t think there was intent behind it, and it got diffused quickly.”
Roberts quickly approached plate umpire Tripp Gibson asking for the umpires to convene. Padres manager Mike Shildt was right behind him. The umpires met on the infield briefly, but no warnings were issued.
“It’s just: He had the reaction, and once the reaction takes place, we’re going to make sure everybody’s calm,” Shildt said.
In this instance, calmness prevailed. That’s not always the case with these two teams. They played a heated five-game NLDS last October and have met in three of the past five postseasons, with the Dodgers winning two of those series.
This year, the Padres again appear to be one of the biggest threats to the Dodgers in the NL West (though the Giants did just pull off a blockbuster trade for Rafael Devers, addressing their biggest need seemingly out of nowhere).
With Monday’s loss, San Diego sits four games back of Los Angeles, and 2 1/2 behind San Francisco -- with all three currently in playoff position. At this point, would it surprise anybody if the Padres and Dodgers were to meet in October for a fourth time in six years?
If so, Monday’s fourth inning ought to be a lesson in what not to do for these Padres. Cease was perhaps as dominant as he’d been all season over the first three innings, striking out the first five Dodgers he’d faced and reeling off 18 fastballs at 99 mph or harder on the night.
Then, with one out in the fourth, Jake Cronenworth made a wide throw to first and Luis Arraez couldn’t hold the bag. The Dodgers had a cheap baserunner. Then another, when Cease plunked Pages. They would score five times in the frame. Despite the electric stuff, Cease finished having allowed six earned runs across five innings.
“You give up that many runs,” he said, “you don’t really give your team a good chance.”