The Los Angeles Dodgers will face the San Diego Padres in spring training on Sunday, the first meeting between the two division rivals since the Dodgers defeated the Padres to win the National League Division Series last October.
During that series, tensions heightened in Game 2. Dodgers fans hurled objects at Padres outfielders, and Padres third baseman Manny Machado got into a violent argument with then-Dodgers pitcher Jack Flaherty when Machado threw a baseball at the Dodgers’ dugout, narrowly missing manager Dave Roberts.
Roberts termed Machado’s throw “unsettling” in October. “It was unsettling,” Roberts explained. “Obviously, I have a relationship with Manny from years ago. There was intention behind it. It did not nearly strike me since there was a net. That was very unpleasant. If that was directed at me, I would be really offended; it is quite rude.”
Later in the series, Roberts appeared to backtrack on some of his early comments, and the Dodgers went on to upset the Padres and win the World Series later that month.
Any potential animosity between Roberts and Machado appears to have dissipated since the series concluded. Ahead of Sunday’s spring training game, Roberts went so far as to say he loves Machado, who played for him on the Dodgers in 2018, “like a son.”
“You’re in an intense series,” Roberts stated this week, per Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “He is going to do everything he can to help his team win, and I am going to do the same. I adore him like a son, and that will never change, yet we are also rivals.”
Machado has likewise abandoned the series, declaring last week that “the past is the past.”
The Dodgers and Padres will face off during the regular season in June. Expect the upcoming series between two World Series candidates to be as competitive as ever.
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