Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages took exception to a Dylan Cease fastball that plunked him on the left arm in Monday’s fourth inning, yelling toward the San Diego Padres’ starting pitcher and prompting both managers, along with a small handful of players from both sides, to congregate near home plate.
Pages later said he believes Cease threw at him intentionally, perhaps, he added, because the Padres thought he was trying to pick up the catcher’s signs while residing on second base after a double in the previous inning.
“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 said in Spanish after the Dodgers’ 6-3 win, noting that Cease missed inside by a whole quadrant.
The Dodgers led by a run with a runner on first, one out and the count 0-1 when Cease’s 98 mph fastball caught Pages on the left elbow guard. Pages stood in the batter’s box and glared at Cease, then yelled something in his direction before taking his base. Benches did not clear. Cease remained in front of the mound and seemed surprised by Pages’ reaction.
“I didn’t understand it,” Cease told reporters. “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.”
The incident fizzled quickly, but it served as a reminder of the tension that might still hover over the Dodgers and Padres, two teams that have quickly become rivals while battling for National League West supremacy.
It all came to a head during the NL Division Series last fall, a matchup marked by Jurickson Profar getting into it with Dodger Stadium fans and a mini-controversy over whether Manny Machado was intentionally throwing a baseball into the Dodgers’ dugout. In the end, the Dodgers prevailed, shutting the Padres’ offense out for 24 consecutive innings to win Games 4 and 5 while en route to a championship.
When the Dodgers arrived at Petco Park at the start of last week, it marked the latest the two teams had ever met in a season since 2000. At that point, one game separated them in the standings. The Dodgers have won three of the first four meetings but will play three more against them. They won’t see the Padres again until August.
Pages acknowledged that he did not react correctly to the hit by pitch but said the adrenaline of the moment took over. “I tried to find a way to apologize,” he said.
“They got way more superstars over there if we want to hit somebody,” Machado told reporters in response to the Pages incident. “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 to have a helluva year. Rooting for him, but it’s just part of the game.”
