Padres’ Manny Machado Sends Strong Message to Rival Dodgers

The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers are two of the best teams in a highly competitive National League West. The San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks are both potential postseason teams, too.

The Dodgers lead the Padres by four games for first place in the division after Monday night’s 6-3 win. However, there was controversy in the bottom of the fourth inning as San Diego’s starting pitcher Dylan Cease hit outfielder Andy Pages with a 98 mph fastball.

Pages, visibly upset with Cease, felt like he was hit with the pitch on purpose. Based on the pitcher’s initial reaction, that did not seem to be the case.

Manny Machado Defends His Pitcher

After the game, third baseman Manny Machado rejected the idea that the San Diego Padres would intentionally throw at someone who was not a “superstar” on the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“They got way more superstars over there if we want to hit somebody,” Machado told ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez. “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 [Pages] having a helluva year. He’s going to continue to have a helluva year. Rooting for him, but it’s just part of the game.”

Machado was traded to the Dodgers from the Baltimore Orioles in July 2018. After hitting 13 home runs in 66 games in the regular season with Los Angeles, the then-shortstop helped the Dodgers reach the World Series, losing to the Boston Red Sox in five games. Machado signed a 10-year, $300 million contract with the Padres in February 2019.

Postgame Remarks From Cease and Pages

The players on the field can tell their side of the story, but most of the time, in a situation like this, the batter and pitcher will always disagree.

Pages felt like it was unlikely that Cease went from great control with his breaking pitches to poor command with his fastball. Pages stared at Cease for several seconds and then yelled something at him after the fastball caught his elbow.

“I probably shouldn’t have reacted like that, but he doesn’t miss with a slider on the corner, yet he can miss with a fastball?” Pages told Gonzalez about the incident in Spanish after the game.

“I didn’t understand it,” Cease told reporters, including Gonzalez. “It’s not going to deter me from throwing inside. I don’t know if I’ve ever hit a Dodger before. It just happens. It’s part of the game.”

Dodgers-Padres Rivalry Intensifies

The San Diego Padres are looking to de-throne the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, as they’ve won 11 of the last 12 division titles. San Diego last won in 2006, finishing with a record of 88-74.

The two teams faced off in the NL Division Series last year, with the Dodgers emerging victorious over the Padres in five games. Los Angeles held the Padres scoreless for the final 24 innings of the series, and controversy began when San Diego’s former outfielder Jurickson Profar had a ball thrown near him during one of the games at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers and Padres will play the second game of their four-game series Tuesday at 10:10 p.m. EDT.