by Cary Osborne
The Dodgers and Padres won’t meet again for nearly two months.
They left things on a simmer on Thursday night.
San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit by a pitch on the forearm in the top of the ninth inning by right-hander Jack Little — making his Major League debut.
Both benches emptied after both managers — Dave Roberts and San Diego’s Mike Schildt — got chest to chest after Tatis crumbled to the ground.
The Padres won the game — 5–3.
The Dodgers won the series — three games to one.
Batters were hit by a pitch eight times in the series — including Shohei Ohtani, Andy Pages and Tatis Jr. twice.
Ohtani was hit by a Robert Suarez pitch on a 3–0 count in the bottom ninth inning on Thursday.
That was after both managers were ejected.
“I didn’t feel good about Tatis,” Roberts said. “A great player, good guy getting hit. I didn’t feel good about it, and so as (Schildt) 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 want (is for Tatis to be hit).”
The Dodgers scored three times in the bottom of the ninth inning and had the winning run up at the plate in Dalton Rushing, but the rookie catcher struck out to end the game.
The Dodgers and Padres next play on Aug. 15 at Dodger Stadium.
“I do feel there is a little bit of a different atmosphere,” said Dodger starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto about when the two teams meet.
Yamamoto has now faced the Padres five times in his career. This was his first meeting against the team this season and the first time since beating them in Game 5 of the 2024 National League Division Series.
Unfortunately, one constant popped up on Thursday — the Dodger offense was unable to support Yamamoto.
The Dodgers didn’t score while he was in the game.
It was the sixth time in 15 starts that they didn’t score while Yamamoto was in the game. They have scored 22 runs for him while he has been in a game this season. That equates to 2.3 runs per nine innings scored for Yamamoto.
He has allowed 26 earned runs this season. His 2.76 ERA ranks eighth in the National League, giving him a strong argument for an All-Star selection. He ranks in the top 10 in the NL in opponents’ average (fifth, .203) WHIP (seventh, 1.09), strikeouts (ninth, 95), strikeouts per nine innings (ninth, 10.1) and quality starts (10th, nine).
But the hard-luck starter now owns a deceiving 6–6 record on the season.
Note: Earlier in the day, starter Tony Gonsolin was moved to the 60-day injured list. He originally went on the IL on June 6 with right elbow discomfort.
Another tense Dodgers-Padres series ends on a simmer was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.