Benches cleared in the first inning of Tuesday's game between the San Diego Padres and the Washington Nationals. Luis Arráez had just opened the bottom of the frame with a weak fly-out to center field, and San Diego's Jurickson Profar was headed to the plate. Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz said something to Profar, and then said something else, and then continued saying things, and then he pushed his finger into Profar's chest. Manny Machado, waiting in the on-deck circle, hurried over and shoved Ruiz away. The sudden flash of even very minor violence was enough to lure every player on both teams out onto the field, where they stood around for a few minutes and muttered half-heartedly at one another. Umpires and managers eventually managed to shoo everyone back to their stations, but not before issuing warnings to both sides: Any escalations would lead to ejections. To understand Ruiz's gripe with Profar, you must rewind a little bit, to the 10th inning of Monday night's series opener between the two teams. Washington had chipped their way back from an early three-run deficit, benefitting from an unusually sound pitching performance from the abominable Patrick Corbin. In the top of the extra frame, Ruiz doubled home the go-ahead run and then scored on Nick Senzel's subsequent sockdolager, to give the Nationals a three-run lead. Nationals manager Dave Martinez called upon his best reliever, righty flamethrower Hunter Harvey, to close out the win, but Harvey soon worked his way into trouble, hanging curveballs to Donovan Solano and Jackson Merrill and allowing two runs to cross without recording an out. Ha-Seong Kim walked and then a sacrifice bunt moved the winning run into scoring position. After a cheap out, Martinez made the call to intentionally walk Arráez to load the bases with two down. This brought Profar to the plate.
More...
More...