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Before Game 2 of the NLDS completely got away from the Los Angeles Dodgers after a late home-run barrage from the San Diego Padres (en route to a 10-2 win for the latter), things had already gotten heated between the two teams. The NL West rivals were engaged in a highly emotional affair, with Jurickson Profar doing his fair share of trolling that made him enemy number one at Dodger Stadium. And in the sixth inning, with Jack Flaherty still on the mound, tempers flared once more after the Dodgers starter hit Fernando Tatis Jr. with a pitch on the thigh.
The Padres, feeding off their us against the world mentality, believed that Flaherty plunked Tatis on purpose. Tatis was on fire in Game 2; by the time the sixth inning rolled around with the Padres leading, 4-1, he already had a double and home run to his name. Thus, Padres players alleged that Flaherty attempted to stop Tatis' momentum by hitting him intentionally. However, Flaherty denied this claim, saying that it made no sense for him to give Tatis a free base since the Dodgers were staring at a deficit.
“It doesn’t make sense. I think I had got six straight outs. We’re leading off an inning. I understand he’s been raking, but you look at the first inning. I missed over the middle. I’ve got to make an adjustment. I tried to go in. He didn’t get out of the way. It hit him in the leg. Not near his head, not near his hands, nothing. I tried to go in and get him off the plate. But I understand what it looks like,” Flaherty said, per Ken Rosenthal and Andy McCullough of The Athletic.
Tensions are always going to run high in a playoff series between the Dodgers and the Padres; with everything on the line, highly-competitive athletes tend to be extremely emotional. In the bottom of the inning, Manny Machado did not take too kindly to everything Flaherty did in the previous half of the inning, prompting a sort of retaliatory response (he threw a baseball towards the Dodgers dugout). Nonetheless, Flaherty was unfazed in standing his ground.
“Emotions run high, I get it. But I’m not going to get punked,” Flaherty added.
Game 2 of the 2024 NLDS gets away from the Dodgers
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In Game 2, the Padres got off to a hot start similar to the way they did in Game 1 of the 2024 NLDS against the Dodgers. They had built a 3-0 lead by the third inning, with Fernando Tatis Jr. setting the tone for San Diego against Jack Flaherty in what was an emotionally-charged game with a solo home run in the first inning.
Flaherty then kept the Padres quiet until the sixth inning, when the free base he gave to Tatis by virtue of a hit-by-pitch came back to haunt him when Jackson Merrill drove in a run with a single. This is further evidence that Flaherty and the Dodgers did not want to hit Tatis on purpose, as the game was firmly within reach at that point, and, perhaps like in Game 1, they could mount a comeback once more. Alas, the Padres flexed their muscle in the eighth and nine innings, when they hit four total home runs to secure the game.
The two teams can now recompose themselves emotionally as they brace for Game 3 of the NLDS at Petco Park on Tuesday night.
