The San Diego Padres won the second game against the Baltimore Orioles by 9-3. However, Saturday’s attraction was not the scoreboard, but the barrages of hit-by-pitches thrown by each other. What started in the fifth inning when the Orioles’ Trey Gibson hit Manny Machado, went till the 9th when Gunnar Henderson took a nasty hit off Ron Marinaccio. Managers got involved, and ejections followed as tensions flared between the dugouts.

“Craig Stammen was ejected after Ron Marinaccio was tossed for hitting Gunnar Henderson on a pitch that appeared to be retaliation for Xander Bogaerts being struck in the head earlier in the game,” Jomboy Media shared via X.

Tensions were already high, and it touched the boiling point in the ninth when Padres reliever Ron Marinaccio hit Gunnar Henderson with a two-out pitch. It was a brutal 94 mph four-seamer that hit Henderson’s waist. And what’s worse was that, in the seventh, Henderson dodged two more hit-by-pitches off Bradgley Rodriguez in the seventh.

Umpires intervened and stopped the possibility of a bench-clearing incident, but only to eject the 30-year-old Marinaccio. This expectedly infuriated Padres manager Craig Stammen. He entered the field and heated exchanges with the umpires followed. Result? Another ejection. “It would have been fine if they just warned everybody,” Stammen said. “And we’d have been fine, and move on from there.”

“They had their two opportunities in my previous at-bat and missed, so I thought that should have been the end of it,” Henderson said. “We hit somebody of theirs, and obviously weren’t trying to, but it is what it is. You had your opportunity to get it back, and they did, and missed. So that should have been it.”

Earlier in the game, Machado dodged the first hit off Gibson in the fifth, but collapsed due to the impact. In the same inning, though, Xavier Bogaerts couldn’t save himself as he got hit straight in the helmet off a sinker and fell to the ground. Trainers arrived, and the foundation for the more to follow and counterhits got fixed. Even the Orioles’ manager, Craig Albernaz, admitted that Henderson was hit as a counter one for Bogaerts.

“I get why they’re mad … I’m not saying the ball to Gunnar was on purpose, but it was done the right way. And that’s why there were no gripes from us and Gunnar was fine with it and just took it to first base,” Albernaz said.

However, Stammen declined to consider Marinaccio’s throw as intentional. “That’s part of pitching, to be able to pitch inside. The pitch between the plate and the body, and it hit him. I don’t know why they tossed [Marinaccio]. I guess maybe because Bogaerts got hit. But it’s frustrating that they would make a decision that quickly.”

The Padres’ manager also stayed vocal against the chirping fans, defending Machado.

Manny Machado is taking hits from the Padres fans

It’s not only the rival pitchers hitting Machado but the Padres’ fans as well.

Following a frustrating loss against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, a few remarks were targeted towards Machado from above the dugout. So far, Machado has had a rough season this year, hitting .178 with 12 HRs and 35 RBIs. On Tuesday, Machado could manage only 2 hits from 5 at-bats. However, the Padres manager decided to take on the fans.

“Being in that situation with our star player, Manny, whom I think very highly of and I’ll protect in any way that I possibly can, I wanted to protect him from being on Jomboy and making something worse than what it needed to be,” Stammen said. “Manny was walking down the dugout (toward the home clubhouse). Manny held his tongue, and for us as coaches, we’re going to take that bullet for Manny. We got Manny out of there and let the fan know what I thought about what he was saying to Manny. I didn’t say one cuss word.”

The Padres are currently standing second in the NL West with a 36-33 record, and Saturday’s fight with the Orioles proved that the Padres are not leaving the field without a fight this year.