Dave Roberts, Mike Shildt suspended one game each after skirmish

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Padres manager Mike Shildt served one-game suspensions on Friday night, one day after a benches-clearing skirmish in Thursday night’s series finale at Dodger Stadium.

A tense series, the second in two weeks between the division rivals, boiled over in the ninth inning on Thursday, the seventh game in 11 days between the Dodgers and Padres. Dodgers rookie Jack Little, in the second frame of his major league debut, hit Fernando Tatis Jr. on the hand, the third time Tatis was hit by Dodgers pitchers in the last two weeks, which angered Shildt to the point of coming on the field and yelling at Roberts.

Benches cleared, and while no punches were thrown between the two teams, Roberts and Shildt were jawing at each other for several minutes. Both were suspended one game by Major League Baseball “for unsportsmanlike conduct and for contributing to inciting the benches-clearing incident.”

Padres closer Robert Suárez was suspended three games for intentionally throwing at Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the ninth inning, the eighth hit batter of the four-game series at Dodger Stadium, four by each team. Suárez is appealing his suspension and remains active for now.

Thursday was the 14th career ejection for Roberts, and his second of the season. The other ejection came on Tuesday night, when Roberts came onto the field to argue against a warning issued to both teams after a few hit batters.

It’s the second time Roberts has been suspended. He also sat one game in 2017 for a different skirmish with a Padres manager, Andy Green.

Roberts on Friday before the Dodgers’ game against the Nationals commented on the suspension, per Benjamin Royer of the Los Angeles Times:

“I support it. I think that obviously, I never want to make the game about the managers, it shouldn’t be,” Roberts said Friday. “It should be about the players and winning.”

He continued: “It unfortunately came to a point where we became the focus and that’s not the way it should be.

Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann managed the team on Friday.