The Los Angeles Dodgers will face the San Diego Padres in spring training on Sunday, marking the first game between the two division foes since the Dodgers came back against the Padres to win the National League Division Series last October.
During that series, tensions rose in Game 2. Dodgers fans threw items at Padres outfielders and Padres third baseman Manny Machado got in a heated exchange with then Dodgers pitcher Jack Flaherty after Machado threw a baseball toward the Dodgers' dugout, narrowly missing manager Dave Roberts.
Roberts called the throw from Machado "unsettling" back in October. "It was unsettling," Roberts said. "Obviously I have a relationship with Manny from years past. There was intent behind it. It didn't almost hit me because there was a net. And that was very bothersome. If it was intended at me, I would be very -- it's pretty disrespectful."
Roberts seemed to retract some of those initial sentiments later in the series, and the Dodgers would go on to defeat the Padres and win the World Series later that month.
It seems that any potential hard feelings between Roberts and Machado have faded since that series ended. Ahead of Sunday's spring training game, Roberts went as far as to say he loves Machado, who played under him on the Dodgers in 2018, "like a son."
“You’re in an intense series,” Roberts said this week, via Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “He’s going to do whatever he can to do to help his team win, and I’m going to do the same. I love him like a son, and that’ll never change, but we’re both competitors.”
Machado has also left that series behind, saying last week that the "the past is the past."
The Dodgers and Padres will face off in the regular season in June. Expect the upcoming series between two World Series contenders to remain competitive as ever.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Dave Roberts Made Surprising Comments on Manny Machado Ahead of Spring Training Clash.