It started with a thud, the unmistakable crack that echoed through Petco Park. It didn’t come from the fans but from the impact of a 93 mph fastball striking Fernando Tatis Jr.’s wrist with force. The Padres dugout exploded not with worry but with rage. This wasn’t the first time Tatis had been hit during the series against the Dodgers. And as the benches cleared and emotions flared, one thing became clear: San Diego had reached its boiling point.
Gavin Sheets echoed that energy, warning, “Intentional or not, we’re not gonna stand for that.” Even Ha-Seong Kim, usually soft-spoken, was seen barking from the top step, visibly incensed. The sentiment was clear: you mess with one, you deal with all. Padres manager Mike Shildt, whose passionate confrontation with Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts got him tossed, stood his ground the next day.
“I don’t regret standing up for a guy that I love in Tati and a team that I love and a city that I love and an organization that I love,” he said. “So, in that regard, I have no regrets.”
That kind of loyalty doesn’t just rally a clubhouse; it electrifies it. When a reporter pointed out about the team’s reactions “When a manager does show that kind of emotion,” Gavin Sheets, reflecting on Shildt’s eruption, said “we love it… We have his back with everything.”
While MLB handed down suspensions—Shildt and Roberts each got a game, and reliever Robert Suárez earned a three-game ban after hitting Shohei Ohtani—the deeper message wasn’t lost. This wasn’t just about one beanball or one missed location. It was about a pattern, a response, and a line being drawn.
Gavin Sheets discusses Fernando Tatis Jr. getting hit by pitches in the series against the Dodgers.
“Intentional or not, we’re not gonna stand for that.” pic.twitter.com/OaIZVy8PhD
— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) June 20, 2025
Suárez denied any intent. “They can say whatever they want. That was not the case,” he said. “I was just trying to finish out that ballgame.”
But the Padres’ silence ended the moment Fernando Tatis went down. Now, their words and actions are loud and clear. So, if this was a warning shot, the Dodgers just heard it. Loud. And unmistakably personal.
Dodgers-Padres rivalry explodes as MLB suspends managers; Padres rally behind Fernando Tatis Jr.
The Dodgers and Padres didn’t just trade pitches in their latest clash; they traded warnings, words, and a whole lot of fury. After Fernando Tatis Jr. took a fastball to the hand in Thursday’s series finale, tensions that had been simmering all series finally detonated. Eight hit batters in four games had set the table, but it was Tatis’ HBP that flipped the switch. The Padres’ manager, Mike Shildt, stormed onto the field while the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts hurried to meet him at home plate; soon after that, both teams poured out of their dugouts in a chaotic confrontation that transformed Petco Park into a pressure cooker.
The fallout came fast. On Friday, Major League Baseball handed out suspensions: one game each for Shildt and Roberts for “unsportsmanlike conduct” and three games for Padres reliever Robert Suárez, who hit Shohei Ohtani just a half-inning after the Tatis incident. Suárez denied intent, but the league wasn’t buying it. Meanwhile, Manny Machado didn’t hide his frustration, warning, “They need to set a little candle up for Tatis tomorrow and hope everything comes back negative.” That wasn’t a threat; it was a shot across the bow from a clubhouse fed up with being targeted.
Thankfully for San Diego, Fernando Tatis’ imaging came back clean, and Shildt couldn’t resist taking a subtle victory lap. “The candle worked,” he said, confirming Tatis would be in the lineup Friday. But make no mistake, the Padres aren’t done circling this date.
The rivalry’s next chapter is already bookmarked: mid-August at Dodger Stadium. With bruises still fresh and emotions barely cooled, that rematch promises fireworks, and neither side plans to flinch.
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