Padres top Dodgers as fans throw baseballs, trash at San Diego players
By Jacob Lev and Brad Lendon, CNN
(CNN) — The San Diego Padres hit a record-tying six home runs Sunday night to smash the Los Angeles Dodgers in a Major League baseball playoff game marred by fans in Dodger Stadium throwing what appeared to be baseballs, and then trash, at Padres’ players.
San Diego evened their best-of-five National League Division Series with LA at a game apiece behind the six homers, two of them by right-fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., who was one of two Padres outfielders who had objects thrown in their direction in the bottom of the seventh inning.
With the Padres up 4-1 at the time, fans threw baseballs at Padres left-fielder Jurickson Profar while he was warming up in the outfield.
As Padres manager Mike Shildt and players met with umpires, fans started throwing trash onto the outfield grass by Tatis in right field.
The game resumed after about a 10-minute delay from the incident.
“You can hurt someone,” Profar, who appeared visibly upset during the incident, told reporters after the game.
“You don’t do that. It’s not the way,” the Padres’ outfielder said in an interview shown on ESPN.
Shildt called the fan behavior “unacceptable,” but he praised his players for their response.
“We’re going to talk with our play; we’re not going to back down; we’re going to elevate our game; we’re going to be together; and we’re going to take care of business,’” he said.
Tatis, who hit homers in the first and ninth innings, called the Dodger Stadium environment “wild” but said throwing objects onto the field was not appropriate.
“I felt like that should not be happening in a big league game,” Tatis said.
“But at the same time, it’s a good environment for baseball,” the Padre outfielder said. “Although people get carried away a little bit with their emotions. But it’s a good back and forth.”
“At the end of the day, it’s a show, and we should enjoy every moment,” Tatis said.
Shildt, the Padres’ skipper, said he expects better behavior from fans in San Diego when the series moves there on Tuesday evening.
“We’re about to go back to San Diego with a very, very loud, raucous, aggressive, hungry crowd that’s going to be super excited and going to be getting after it. But I know also that we’ll stay classy, San Diego,” Shildt said.
The Padres’ six home runs on Sunday night tied the Major League playoff record set by the Philadelphia Phillies last year and the Chicago Cubs in 2015.
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