Manny Machado confronted Fernando Tatis Jr. in the dugout during the fifth inning of their San Diego Padres’ 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday.
Tatis struck out looking to start the top of the fifth with his team leading 2-0. He was upset with the strike three call and complained about it. Padres manager Jayce Tingler argued about the call and was ejected.
Prior to taking the field for the bottom of the fifth, Machado confronted his teammate in the dugout to tell him to stop complaining and focus on playing. Why? He knew the Padres couldn’t afford to have their best player ejected or moping.
Here is what the argument looked like. Beware, there is some cussing:
#padrws #STLFLY Oh Damn pic.twitter.com/OPiopEMukN
— Joe Yancey (@joe_yancey3) September 19, 2021
Absent context, the video makes Machado look bad. But he was showing good leadership by stepping in and trying to get Tatis to focus and level out his head.
Keep in mind what’s going on with the Padres. They had a strong first half and were 16 games above .500 at one point. They have started to fade though since mid-August and are 2.5 games back of the second wild-card spot. Their collapse has been a sore spot for a month, so it’s no surprise to see heated emotions in the dugout.
Machado has a negative reputation and brought a lot of it upon himself. However, he seems to have matured in San Diego and was showing leadership in this situation.
