The San Diego Padres hit six home runs to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 10-2, in a Major League Baseball playoff game on Sunday night. The game was marred by fans at Dodger Stadium who started throwing and hurling balls at Padres players.
San Diego had reached a 1-1 tie in the best-of-five National League Division Series game with Los Angeles thanks to six home runs, two of which were hit by right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., who earned one of the Padres' two outfielders a direction item in the bottom of the seventh inning. At this point, with the Padres leading 4-1, a fan hurled a ball at Padres left fielder Jurickson Profour, who was warming up in the outfield. While Padres manager Mike Shildt and players were meeting with the umpires, fans began tossing trash, which right fielder Tatis had thrown, onto the outfield grass. The match resumed after a delay of about 10 minutes following the incident. "Sometimes that hurts somebody," Profar, visibly shaken by the incident, told reporters after the game. "You don't do that. That's not the way it's done," the Padres outfielder said in an interview with ESPN. Shildt called the fans' behavior "unacceptable" but praised his players for their response. "I'm going to talk about our game. We're not going to give in. We're going to improve our game. We're going to stick together. We're going to deal with this," he said. Tatis, who homered in the first and ninth innings, called the atmosphere at Dodger Stadium "wild" but said throwing things on the field was not appropriate. "I just felt like that shouldn't happen in a major league game," Tatis said. "But at the same time, it's a good environment for baseball, even if people get a little emotional. But it's a good back-and-forth. "At the end of the day, it's a show and you have to enjoy every moment." Padres captain Shildt said he expects to see improvements in fan behavior in San Diego when the series moves to San Diego on Tuesday night. "We're coming back to San Diego with a very loud, rowdy, aggressive, hungry crowd. They're going to be very excited and going for it. But we also know that we, San Diego, will maintain our class," Shildt said. The Padres' six homers on Sunday night tied the MLB playoff record set by the Philadelphia Phillies last year and the Chicago Cubs in 2015. Tatis got the Padres on the scoreboard early, his solo hit followed by a two-run homer by David Peralta in the second inning. Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux fought back with a sac fly in the second inning, but Jackson Merrill hit an RBI single in the sixth inning and then extended the Padres' lead again with a two-run homer in the eighth inning.
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