The Nationals set the tone early, but the Padres respond with authority in a 9-7 victory

Before Tuesday’s game, rumors swirled that a handful of Nationals had objected to the incident. As Jesse Winker scored the last in the top of the first inning Tuesday, he had a few words for Profar as they passed each other leaving the field.

As Profar, hitting second, entered the batter’s box in the bottom half, catcher Keibert Ruiz struck up a conversation, tapping Profar’s chest with his index finger as Profar — at first — made no contact visual. Eventually, he did that and more, sparring verbally with the Nationals catcher before the Padres’ Manny Machado, who was waiting in the on-deck circle, shoved Ruiz away, leading the dugouts and bullpens to collapse. empty on the ground.

Injured Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams held out Ruiz. A Padres trainer held Profar away from the fray. Nationals manager Dave Martinez and Padres manager Mike Shildt entered the fray, with Shildt appearing particularly bothered by the incident. The referees issued warnings to both dugouts.

“He felt like he needed to say something,” Martinez said of Ruiz. “And honestly, I was proud of him. I really was. I mean, like I said, sometimes you wear emotions on your sleeve. Sometimes you swallow them. But I like the fact that he defended our guys.

He continued: “For me, (the conversation) was a good way to get a message across. Like, “Hey, you hit the ball, you won the game, but we’re not going to stand for that. » » When asked what “this” he was referring to, Martinez declined to elaborate.

Ruiz said he hadn’t planned to speak with Profar until the outfielder stepped up to the plate, saying the adrenaline and the stadium got the better of him.

“I just feel like it wasn’t great — what he did yesterday wasn’t great,” Ruiz said. “I feel it myself and I just wanted to let him know.”

On Profar’s first pitch at bat, MacKenzie Gore hit him in the leg with a 97.7 mph fastball but turned around and grimaced, indicating it was unintentional, which he did then confirmed after the match. The referees agreed that was enough to avoid an expulsion. Because no one had been kicked – yet – Shildt returned to argue and was kicked from the game.

One pitch later, Machado launched a two-run homer that propelled Petco Park and its 40,825 spectators to a level of intensity that surpassed Monday’s victory. Profar walked around the bases and raised his arms, then waited for Machado to touch home plate before dusting off his shoulder. Almost everyone in the Padres dugout came out and celebrated the home run.

Ruiz and Winker were booed heavily in successive at-bats, but the latter gave the Nationals a third-inning lead with a two-run homer. Washington stayed in the dugout – something Martinez was proud of and Winker thought nothing of.

“I love it. I really do,” Martinez said. “We celebrate among ourselves. We don’t need to celebrate in front of other teams or people. I love the character of this team. I really do. I talks about it all the time, but these guys don’t give up. They play hard. We tend to do things the right way.

Winker said: “When it comes to celebrating, where baseball is right now, I feel like it’s kind of like the lid’s been lifted, where you can celebrate however you want. Universally and (in) baseball, it’s OK. Some guys celebrate, some guys like Lane Thomas hit a home run, put his head down and run. … There’s no right or wrong.”

Suddenly, on the verge of playing .500 baseball in June for the first time in three seasons, the Nationals are reeling after four of their most farcical games this season.

On Saturday, the Nationals (38-41) suffered the first loss due to a pitch-clock violation in MLB history. On Sunday, they worked 5⅓ innings of no-hit play against a starter with an ERA over 13.00 who had just been activated from the 60-day injured list before scoring two runs in the ninth to win. On Monday, the Nationals mounted a three-run comeback, blew a three-run lead in the top of the 10th and were eliminated. Tuesday had all of that.

At Petco Park against the Padres (43-41), the Nationals didn’t pass the first test. Two weeks ago, Gore got into a fight with teammate Nick Senzel in the dugout, but finished the game with 10 strikeouts and reestablished the relationship before the end of the game. Tuesday, he couldn’t get the same response. The left-hander worked the fifth, allowing three more runs to end his head-down start, five earned runs, one strikeout (to tie a career low) and a 5-4 deficit.

And then, with the Padres bases loaded in the sixth and Nationals reliever Dylan Floro out of the game after giving up the three singles that got them there, Profar still had some poetry to write, taking Derek’s cutter Law 353 feet to right field. , putting him inside the foul pole for a grand slam and giving it a 9-4 lead. There was less theatrics this time — maybe a slow trot, but no jeers or gestures toward the crowd, as Law threw dirt on the mound — as fans flooded Profar with MVP chants.

The Nationals pushed two more runs in the eighth, scoring via a Joey Meneses sacrifice fly and an RBI double by Harold Ramírez for his first hit as a National. CJ Abrams added an RBI single in the ninth.

Ruiz, just 25 years old and yet one of the oldest players on the roster, has been a quiet and steady presence since arriving from the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021 as part of the Max Scherzer and Trea trade Turner. Winker, who signed a one-year contract at the start of spring training, has become one of the Nats’ most intense personalities and was recorded after Monday’s game chirping with a Padres fan . When asked after Tuesday’s game if he blocked out the noise, Winker referenced the incident.

“Well, I can’t say I’m blocking him because yesterday I talked to a fan,” he said. “But you try to do it. The fans are passionate about their team. It’s their only team in town, I think. They sell out every night… (but) it’s all good.

Remarks: Josiah Gray (flexor strain) made his fourth rehab start with Class AAA Rochester, effectively throwing 73 pitches over six innings while allowing one earned run on four hits with no walks and four strikeouts. The right-hander, out since early April, mixed in six of his seven pitches and sat at 92 mph with his four-seamer, which was at 93 mph to start the year.