“It’s not about you,” Manny Machado exclaimed at Fernando Tatis Jr on Saturday evening, during the San Diego Padres’ loss to the St Louis Cardinals.
Machado, aged 29, and Tatis, aged 22, who were both All-Stars this season, had to be intervened by their teammates in the dugout after a confrontation that arose when Tatis was called out looking at the end of the fifth inning. The young player reacted with frustration and anger to the umpire’s call, leading to team manager Jace Tingler stepping out of the dugout to contest the decision and subsequently getting ejected. Following the incident, both players returned to their positions and resumed playing.
The game concluded with a 3-2 triumph for the Cardinals, widening their lead to two games over the Padres in the NL wild card race. Currently, St Louis holds the second spot in the NL Central division with a 79-69 win-loss record, while the Padres occupy the third position in the West standings, trailing the Giants and the Dodgers, with a record of 76-73.
“We’re a family,” Tingler emphasized post-game. “We’re not going into specifics, but we look out for one another. There’s passion. There’s frustration. These are natural emotions, and such occurrences take place…
“It’s just baseball. These incidents occur, and the tides can turn abruptly. We need to make that turnaround swiftly.”
