To close out a tense gauntlet between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres that saw the divisional foes meet seven times in 11 days, Shohei Ohtani was plucked by a 100 mph pitch from Friars closer Robert Suarez.
The errant offering came after a benches-clearing skirmish between the two teams in the top of the ninth inning after Padres slugger Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit by a pitch from right-hander Jack Little, who made his MLB debut when entering the game in the eighth.
Both managers were dealt a one-game suspension from MLB the next day, while Suarez was given a three-game punishment for hitting Ohtani after the brawl.
The Padres closer appealed the suspension, and upon the league reducing it to two games, Suarez accepted. He will begin serving on Wednesday.
Manager Dave Roberts spoke on Suarez hitting Ohtani after what had transpired with the teams, and even the right-hander to left-handed-hitter matchup giving more reason to believe there was intention behind his offering.
“I don’t know how many left-handed hitters Suarez has hit with a fastball, but clearly there was intent behind it,” Roberts said.
The pitch that started the benches-clearing stoppage in the ninth inning was Little’s throw to Tatis that made contact with the slugger’s wrist. Regardless of if that pitch was meant to hit him or not, Padres manager Mike Shildt expressed his disdain and defended his reason to trot out towards the Dodgers dugout and initiate the skirmish.
“Enough is enough,”Shildt said.“Intentional, unintentional, the fact of the matter is, I took exception with it.”
Roberts still said that the rookie pitcher hitting Tatis was unintentional, especially since the score was 5-0 and Little had never entered an MLB game before Thursday.
“I think anyone knows there was no intent there,” Roberts said of the pitch. “And so as he (Shildt) comes out, and he’s yelling at me and staring me down, that bothers me. Because, to be quite frank, that’s the last thing I wanted.”
The bothered managers served their one-game suspensions and Suarez will now begin his two-game work stoppage starting on Wednesday.
