Padres ex-manager tangled in chaos when rival punching bag punches back — literally

Bob Melvin thought he’d left the chaos behind when he traded San Diego’s threads for the supposed calm of San Francisco. Padres fans, meanwhile, are happy they'd finally get to sit one out. No late-night drama, no clubhouse whispers, no front office friction bleeding onto the field. Just quiet bystanders.

But baseball has a way of dragging familiar faces back into the mud. On September 2, Melvin and his Giants weren’t just playing a meaningless September game against the 100-loss Colorado Rockies, they were starring in one of the strangest afternoons of the season. What should have been background noise turned into the makings of throwback VHS-style brawl, complete with jawing, benches clearing, and actual punches thrown.

Rockies throw punches, Giants take the heat, and Padres just watch with popcorn

It started when Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland had enough of Rafael Devers’ showmanship. After Devers admired his first-inning homer a little too long, Freeland made his feelings known before Devers could even make it to first base. Tempers flared, dugouts emptied, and in an instant, one of the most irrelevant matchups of September turned into headline material.

For Padres fans, this was pure theater. The ex-manager who once tried to bring order to San Diego was now getting tossed into another storm, except this time, it wasn’t their problem. The divorce between Melvin and the Padres after the 2023 season felt inevitable. Tension between Melvin and GM A.J. Preller, philosophical clashes over roster-building, and the pull of a Bay Area homecoming made the split unavoidable. But seeing him now, tangled up in a Devers-fueled mess in Denver, almost felt like cosmic payback.

Then there’s Devers himself, the same player many Friars fans wanted no part of when his name briefly hovered in the rumor mill. San Francisco went all-in anyway, and sure enough, Devers has been equal parts slugger and headache. On this day, it was the headache front and center, one that many could chuckle at from a safe distance.

Melvin, for his part, tried to play the role of defender afterward. He insisted his Giants “didn’t start it” and hoped MLB would be fair when the suspensions inevitably dropped. The irony, of course, is that Melvin didn’t even finish the game himself. He got ejected for arguing balls and strikes not long after the dust settled. A benches-clearing brawl and a manager’s ejection in one September tilt? That’s a whole lot of chaos for someone who supposedly left it behind.

And that’s the beauty of it. For once, it’s not the Padres or Dodgers caught up in the drama or dragged into national headlines for the wrong reasons. Instead, they get to sit back, smirk, and watch their other division rivals, the Rockies and Giants take the heat.

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