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Manny Machado-Jack Flaherty spat somehow lost in the mix of Padres-Dodgers NLDS drama

There was a lot of chirping going on in LA on Sunday night.
Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Friars On Base

Division Series - San Diego Padres v Los Angeles Dodgers - Game 1 / Orlando Ramirez/GettyImages

Sunday night's NLDS matchup between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers was a wild one. The Padres' offense went crazy and backed up a stellar start from Yu Darvish, but there was also plenty of drama.

Jurickson Profar continued to make enemies of the Dodgers and then LA fans lost their minds as they started throwing balls and other debris on to the field as the game started spiraling out of control in the seventh inning. However, lost in the chaos was a notable spat between Manny Machado and Jack Flaherty.

Flaherty did not exactly have a stellar start against San Diego. He gave up four runs in 5.1 innings of work including a pair of homers, and it became abundantly clear that he was incapable of getting Fernando Tatis Jr. out through normal means. In the sixth inning, Flaherty hit Tatis with a pitch and a couple batters later, struck Machado out with two runners on. That was when the chirping started.

Flaherty-Machado feud lit a fire under Padres in blowout win over the Dodgers

This is a classic case of conflicting stories. One thing no one disputes is that Flaherty told Machado to "sit the (bad word) down, mother(bad word)" after striking him out, but it doesn't sound like that is what bothered Machado who has a reputation as a trash-talker himself. Instead, Machado took issue with Flaherty hitting Tatis earlier in the inning which led to the lengthy back and forth.

Flaherty adamantly denied hitting Tatis on purpose and said he would never put him on base on purpose with the Dodgers behind. That does make logical sense, but there is nothing logical about the animosity between these two teams, and the timing was definitely suspect. Tatis had crushed two balls against Flaherty earlier in the game for a home run and a double, so the idea that Flaherty all of sudden had one get away from him is extremely naive.

All's well that ends well as the Padres pressed their advantage after all the drama and cruised to a convincing 10-2 win on the Dodgers' home turf. That said, one hopes that tempers don't flare too much once this series comes to San Diego as things could go sideways in a hurry.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.