The Los Angeles Dodgers routed the San Diego Padres and Alex Wood became the first pitcher in franchise history to open a season 9-0 since Rick Rhoden did so in 1976. But the predominant storyline was the benches-clearing incident Wood seemingly sparked.
He shouted a profanity-laced message at Jose Pirela in the bottom of the first inning, out of suspicion he was relaying pitch location from second base to Manuel Margot. The umpires gathered and warnings were issued to both teams.
Home plate umpire Greg Gibson then met with Padres manager Andy Green and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts prior to the second inning beginning. The conversation seemed tense but nothing overtly unusual.
That changed as Green had parting words for Roberts, which incited the Dodgers’ manager. He made contact with Green and both benches cleared. Green and Roberts were immediately ejected. Roberts said he took issue with Green’s “pointed” comments about Wood.
While Clayton Richard factored into the decision but not the shoving match, he was critical of Wood, via Dennis Lin of The San Diego Union-Tribune:
“It’s nice to be in this fraternity of baseball players where there are so many legitimately tough people involved. Because it’s such a grind, physically and mentally, to go through a season. Unfortunately, there’s a few guys that act fake tough when they’er given an opportunity. I feel like that happened today. It’s kind of unfortunate.”
Richard only went 4.1 innings and was charged for seven runs on nine hits, two of which were home runs to Austin Barnes. One of Barnes’ homer was a first career grand slam.
Richard held the Dodgers scoreless over eight innings in a start at Dodger Stadium in April. But in two outings facing Los Angeles since that time, the veteran southpaw has allowed 12 runs in 9.1 innings.
