Alexander: No, the Dodgers and Padres definitely do not like each other

LOS ANGELES — You knew it was coming, didn’t you?

It was bound to happen. The San Diego Padres are flamboyant, swaggering, not afraid to celebrate in your face – and particularly the heart of their batting order: Fernando Tatis Jr. has, among other things, his stutter step when he approaches third base after hitting a home run. Jurickson Profar is always willing to emote. And Manny Machado is a lightning rod here for, well, just being Manny.

And don’t look now, but the Padres and their fans – who despise everything L.A. as a rule and consider the Dodgers the main rival, even if Dodger fans don’t return the favor – might have the Dodgers right where they want them, just as they did in 2022.

That year the Dodgers won Game 1 of the Division Series at home and didn’t win a game after that. This year, after winning Game 1, they were humbled, 10-2, in Sunday night’s Game 2, with San Diego slugging a postseason record-tying six home runs, two of them by Tatis, on a night when emotions ran wild. And now the Dodgers head to Petco Park, the same place where their championship dreams died a painful death two years ago.

There have been testy moments before in the Dodgers-Padres relationship, such as the night Trent Grisham homered off of Clayton Kershaw a few years ago, punctuated it with a truly impressive toss of the bat and heard all about the Dodgers’ displeasure from the dugout as he rounded third base. (That was about the time when the Petco Park scoreboard operator started using the “Crying Kershaw” meme.) Then there was the night in San Diego when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and then-Padres skipper Andy Green almost got into it on the field themselves.

Then there was the 2020 NLDS in the COVID bubble in Arlington, Texas, and the night Cody Bellinger took a home run away from Tatis, Brusdar Graterol celebrated Bellinger’s play in a way Machado considered too enthusiastic – imagine that – and Mookie Betts and Max Muncy both yelled at Machado to get back in the dugout.

Things boiled over Sunday night in the sixth inning, and it shouldn’t be a bit surprising that Tatis, Profar and Machado were in the middle of it.

Tatis had already worn the Dodgers out, with a home run in the first inning and a double in the third, plus a leaping catch to rob Freddie Freeman of a hit, and potentially extra bases, in the fourth. When he came up in the sixth, with the Padres leading 4-1, starter Jack Flaherty plunked him in the thigh with an 0-and-1 sinker. It probably wasn’t intentional – as Flaherty said afterward, he’d missed over the middle on Tatis’ first-inning homer and wanted to adjust.

“Trying to go in,” he said. “He didn’t get out of the way. I hit him in the leg. Not near his head, not near his hands. … I understand what it looks like. That’s where the game is. But I’m down 3-1, with 2-3-4 (in the order) coming up. … I get it. Emotions run high. It’s the way the game is.”

Tatis’ version: “It’s too early in the game to be doing stuff like that. There’s too much of an important series just to be throwing at guys. That’s what I understand. That’s what my IQ of baseball is telling me. When he hit me, he just gave me more energy.”

What we saw: Tatis stared at Flaherty while making his way to first base. And while this was happening, Profar felt compelled to yap at Dodgers catcher Will Smith before stepping into the box. Maybe it was his response to Smith calling him “irrelevant” earlier in the year. But he walked, and he did some staring of his own on the way to first base.

Flaherty – who only joined the Dodgers in August but appears to have caught on quickly – then struck out Machado on a 3-and-2 four-seamer, and was caught on camera saying to Machado: “Sit the (expletive) down, (expletive)!” Machado yapped back, and the byplay continued after the inning when, according to Flaherty, Machado tossed a ball toward the Dodgers’ dugout.

“Everybody catches the tail end of it of me and him going at it, but I was sitting there for my team,” Flaherty said. “I wasn’t going to go at him. He was throwing at our dugout. The umpires went over immediately. I don’t know what their conversation was, but our dugout was fired up because there’s no reason for that.”

But wait. There’s more. The fans got involved, tossing balls on the field in Profar’s direction before the bottom of the seventh. That brought Padres manager Mike Shildt out to talk to the umpires, Dodgers security personnel got involved, and while the situation in left field was being discussed, Tatis was egging on the fans in the right field corner, and then some started throwing debris at him.

Eventually things quieted down.

“Oh, man, it’s definitely wild out here,” Tatis said afterward. “But at the same time it’s a good environment for baseball, although people get carried away a little bit with their emotions. But it’s a good back and forth. At the end of the day, it’s a show, and we should enjoy every moment.”

The San Diego fans in attendance – no, they are not discouraged from attending games in Los Angeles, as opposed to the geofencing of Petco Park for Padres-Dodgers playoff games – loved it. By the end of the night, they were the only ones making noise.

Given the circumstances, just imagine what kind of reception awaits the Dodgers in San Diego on Tuesday night.

jalexander@scng.com