Tense Pads-Dodgers tilt sees 3 hit, Roberts tossed
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Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — The first pitch Randy Vasquez threw to Shohei Ohtani in Tuesday’s third inning was a fastball low and inside enough to brush him back. The second hit the two-way superstar squarely on his right quad, prompting umpires to issue warnings to both sides and triggering the first ejection of the year for Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
Vasquez said the pitch, which occurred a half-inning after Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit by Lou Trivino, “wasn’t intentional,” adding that the attack plan against Ohtani was to hammer the fastball inside and Vasquez “didn’t execute the pitch.”
Roberts disagreed.
“Absolutely,” Roberts, speaking after his team’s 8-6 win, said when asked if he believes Vasquez hit Ohtani on purpose. “He hasn’t come close. For me, if they feel that’s warranted on their side — part of baseball, that’s what they feel. I give him credit because they hit him in the leg. Own it, and we move on. It’s not a misfire. I do feel it was intentional. Again, that’s part of baseball, which we all understand.”
On Monday night, Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages took a fastball to the left elbow guard from Padres starter Dylan Cease and yelled in Cease’s direction. Later, Pages said he felt he was hit on purpose, perhaps because the Padres believed he was trying to relay the catcher’s signs from second base earlier in the game.
The following night, Trivino threw an 0-1 sinker with first base open and none out in the top of the third that caught Tatis in the upper back. Tatis, who was also hit by Trivino while leading off a game from Petco Park seven days earlier, was clearly upset but said nothing in Trivino’s direction. He walked slowly to first base, then watched from right field when Ohtani was hit — with none on, one out and the count 1-0 — in the bottom half.
“Just trying to make quality pitches and fight for the inner part of the plate,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said, “and a ball got away from Vasquez.”
But Roberts was irate that his side was warned, then spilled out of the dugout and yelled in the face of third-base umpire Tripp Gibson after he had tossed him.
“I didn’t feel a warning on both sides was warranted,” Roberts said, “so I just wanted to know an explanation. I wanted an explanation on their thought process. I didn’t come in hot. I just wanted to know why; why they issued [the warnings]. I realized later I got tossed, which I didn’t understand or appreciate. Even looking back, to see Mike get the opportunity to talk to umpires after I was tossed and [get] their explanation, and he was still in the game. I think what anyone wants is consistency, right?”
A fourth hit by pitch occurred at the start of the seventh inning, when Dodgers reliever Matt Sauer plunked Padres infielder Jose Iglesias in the left wrist — postgame X-rays were negative — but was not tossed. Manny Machado — who, along with Tatis, left Dodger Stadium before media was allowed in the clubhouse — yelled toward the umpires wondering why Sauer was not tossed. But Shildt said he did not believe that pitch was intentional.
It was nonetheless a flash point in yet another hotly contested matchup between the Padres and Dodgers, two bitter rivals who are near the end of a 10-day stretch in which they face each other seven times.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Shildt said of the tension in this series. “Look, the best part about a rivalry is people are going to bring their best shot. Good news is both teams are bringing it every night. We love it. We can’t do it, but I wish we played them every night.”
On this night, it was Pages who stole the show, going 4-for-4 with two home runs to increase his OPS to .845 and solidify himself as one of the sport’s breakout stars. After Pages reacted angrily to Cease’s hit by pitch on Monday night, cameras caught Shildt yelling, “Who the f— do you think you are?” from his dugout. Later, Machado, while praising Pages’ season, said, “They got way more superstars over there if we want to hit somebody.”
Pages got the last laugh, leading the Dodgers to their fourth win in five games against the Padres this season — with two more to follow over the next two nights.
“I think Andy spoke for himself today,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “I think Andy told him who he was today.”
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Adam Rittenberg
BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he feels “healthy and vibrant” after returning to the field for preseason practices after undergoing surgery to remove his bladder after a cancerous tumor was found.
Sanders, 57, said he has been walking at least a mile around campus following Colorado’s practices, which began last week. He was away from the team for the late spring and early summer following the surgery in May. Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center, said July 30 that Sanders, who lost about 25 pounds during his recovery, is “cured of cancer.”
“I’m healthy, I’m vibrant, I’m my old self,” Sanders said. “I’m loving life right now. I’m trying my best to live to the fullest, considering what transpired.”
Sanders credited Colorado’s assistant coaches and support staff for overseeing the program during his absence. The Pro Football Hall of Famer enters his third season as Buffaloes coach this fall.
“They’ve given me tremendous comfort,” Sanders said. “I never had to call 100 times and check on the house, because I felt like the house is going to be OK. That’s why you try your best to hire correct, so you don’t have to check on the house night and day. They did a good job, especially strength and conditioning.”
Colorado improved from four to nine wins in Sanders’ second season, but the team loses Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the No. 2 pick in April’s NFL draft, as well as record-setting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes have an influx of new players, including quarterbacks Kaidon Salter and Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, who are competing for the starting job, as well as new staff members such as Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who is coaching the Buffaloes’ running backs.
Despite the changes and his own health challenges, Deion Sanders expects Colorado to continue ascending. The Buffaloes open the season Aug. 29 when they host Georgia Tech.
“The next phase is we’re going to win differently, but we’re going to win,” Sanders said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the Hail Mary’s at the end of the game, but it’s going to be hell during the game, because we want to be physical and we want to run the heck out of the football.”
Sanders said it will feel “a little weird, a little strange” to not be coaching Shedeur when the quarterback starts his first NFL preseason game for the Cleveland Browns on Friday night at Carolina. Deion Sanders said he and Shedeur had spoken several times Friday morning. Despite being projected as a top quarterback in the draft, Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round.
“A lot of people are approaching it like a preseason game, he’s approaching like a game, and that’s how he’s always approached everything, to prepare and approach it like this is it,” Deion Sanders said. “He’s thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. He don’t get covered in, you know, all the rhetoric in the media.
“Some of the stuff is just ignorant. Some of it is really adolescent, he far surpasses that, and I can’t wait to see him play.”
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Adam Rittenberg
LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier aggravated the patellar tendinitis he has been dealing with in his knee but will not miss any significant time, coach Brian Kelly said Friday.
Kelly dropped in ahead of a news conference Friday with offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to tell reporters that Nussmeier did not suffer a severe knee injury or even a new one. According to Kelly, Nussmeier has chronic tendinitis in his knee and “probably just planted the wrong way” during Wednesday’s practice.
Nussmeier ranked fifth nationally in passing yards (4,052) last season, his first as LSU’s starter, and projects as an NFL first-round draft pick in 2026.
“It’s not torn, there’s no fraying, there’s none of that,” Kelly said. “This is preexisting. … There’s nothing to really see on film with it, but it pissed it off. He aggravated it a little bit, but he’s good to go.”
Kelly said Nussmeier’s injury ranks 1.5 out of 10 in terms of severity. Asked whether it’s the right or left knee, Kelly said he didn’t know, adding, “It’s not a serious injury. Guys are dealing with tendinitis virtually every day in life.”
LSU opens the season Aug. 30 at Clemson.
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