A little over a month into the season, the Los Angeles Dodgers have already matched up with their division-rival, the Arizona Diamondbacks, 11 times.
The Diamondbacks have gotten the better of the Dodgers, for the most part, winning eight of the 11 games including Tuesday night’s 8-5 victory at Dodger Stadium on a 12th-inning home run off the bat of Daniel Descalso.
Earlier in the game, there was a bit of a controversial play as Diamondbacks right fielder Steven Souza Jr. attempted to take third base on Dodgers reliever J.T. Chargois.
Chargois calmly stepped off the mound and threw over to third base. Souza went into third sliding hard and late, taking out Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy in the process. A shouting match between Souza and the Dodgers dugout proceeded, as manager Dave Roberts and others appeared to take exception to Souza’s slide.
Following the loss, Roberts expressed his dissatisfaction with the play, via SportsNet LA:
“I didn’t see the replay yet. I saw it briefly and I did expect that he slid well past the bag. I know that Souza plays hard, but I thought that was excessive for me.”
It can be inferred that what Souza was yelling back at the dugout had to do with a hard slide that Chase Utley had into second base last week at Chase Field. Though that sequence did not lead to any exchanges at the time.
With two division rivals playing each other so many times in such a short span, it is understandable that there are frustrations on both sides. Particularly when also taking into account history between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.
