NEW YORK — Late Monday at Yankee Stadium, revenge was a dish best served with a pair of well-struck line drives.
In the top of the eighth, in a contest that had seen two rain delays, continued in-game rain and seven fruitless innings by the visiting offense, home-plate umpire Adrian Johnson ejected right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. and then manager Mike Shildt after the two members of the San Diego Padres voiced their displeasure with the strike zone. Tatis’ ejection was the first of his big-league career and his first, he later said, since he was a teenager playing winter ball in his native Dominican Republic. Shildt’s ejection was his first of the season.
So, what did Tatis say to Johnson before a rare heave-ho precipitated a less unusual but still memorable sequence of events?
“I forgot,” Tatis said, laughing, after the Padres’ 4-3 victory marked their ninth comeback win of the season. “I’m just happy I got the boys hyped.”
Moments after Tatis was removed from the game — after Shildt followed him, still seething and screaming as he stormed down the tunnel to the visiting clubhouse — first baseman Luis Arraez drew a two-out walk to load the bases. A moment later, third baseman Manny Machado laced a double to score the Padres’ first two runs of the game. Then, shortstop Xander Bogaerts swung at and connected with the very next pitch, driving in Arraez and Machado to put San Diego ahead, it turned out, for good.
In the aftermath of the Padres’ sixth consecutive win and their 23rd in 34 games this year, no one scoffed at the notion that it might have been their most satisfying result of 2025.
“We’re just gritty, man. We play for one another. I know it kind of sounds cheesy, but we play for one another, man,” said utility player Tyler Wade, who started the eighth-inning rally with a walk. “We don’t care what the score is until the last out is made, man. It’s fun, especially in games like this.”
“It doesn’t really matter if we play in the conditions that we play in,” right-hander Nick Pivetta said, sidestepping questions about what it had been like pitching in a game in which his uniform was drenched both before and after the second rain delay. “We were able to come out on top tonight, and that’s because we’re a great team.”
“They all are equal in the (win) column. This one has even deeper entrench(ment) of who we are and how we compete,” Shildt said. “It’s just the fabric of this club, the grit squad.”
For seven innings Monday, the Padres’ grittiness appeared limited to the mound. Neither Yankees starter Carlos Rodón nor Pivetta threw a pitch until the start of the game was delayed by close to 30 minutes. Rodón ended up shutting out San Diego until he was lifted with two outs in the seventh. Pivetta did what he could to compete for 3 2/3 innings, allowing two runs and eventually pitching in a downpour before the game was paused with two outs in the fourth. Twenty-eight minutes later, he retook the mound, struck out a batter on three pitches and stayed in the game for three more outs. Meanwhile, a Padres offense still missing center fielder Jackson Merrill and second baseman Jake Cronenworth looked headed for what would have been its third shutout loss in 11 games.
Padres manager Mike Shildt exchanges words with umpire Adrian Johnson, left, before he was ejected. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
That was before Tatis, batting with the game still within reach, disagreed with a strike-two call that might have clipped the bottom of the strike zone. And before Shildt, who had already expressed his displeasure with Johnson’s zone throughout the game, began barking again from the dugout railing.
When Tatis flailed at the next pitch, he turned to Johnson, said something brief with a hand covering his mouth, and walked away, even as Johnson signaled his ejection. Incensed, Shildt stomped out of the dugout, tossed his glasses into the grass nearby and proceeded to scream at Johnson for at least a full minute.
Later, he was still screaming.
“Shildty came down the tunnel, and he was still chirping. I was in the bathroom,” Bogaerts said. “He probably had enough.”
It was Shildt’s 15th career ejection. He took more exception with the fact that it was Tatis’ first.
“Look, (umpiring) is a hard job,” Shildt said. “I’ve got great relationship with and respect … with umpires. And Tati had some pitches that he didn’t agree with — I didn’t agree with — earlier. Had made my comments from the dugout known, which I don’t do a ton. But (Tatis) walks away, hand over his mouth, and next thing you know, he’s ejected, walking away with his back turned, for his first major-league ejection.
“I’ve managed for a long time now — minor leagues, big leaguers. I don’t have players that get ejected. … I probably have the fewest amount of player ejections in my time managing. Our players play, they stay in the game. … But (Johnson) made a decision. He threw him out. I let the body of the work for the umpire grade speak for itself.”
The job of being a big-league umpire has become an especially interesting one. The Athletic reported last week that Major League Baseball, before the season, negotiated a slightly tighter strike zone with the Major League Umpires Association — and that players, managers and other team employees throughout the majors said they were not alerted ahead of time. While some in the game say there seem to be fewer called strikes at the top of the zone and around the corners, some of the same people note that the bottom of the zone appears to have expanded.
“Yeah, especially for Tatis,” said Arraez, a three-time batting champion. “Tatis is a really good hitter, and they call a lot of strikes that’s balls. But (umpires are) human, and I think they watch the videos too, so I hope they get better.”
Added Tatis, an early National League MVP candidate amid a mini-slump: “I think I’ve been seeing the ball really well, so I think I have an idea when it’s a ball and a strike. So, we have not been on the same page for the last couple games, but we got to deal with it.”
Monday, after his exit, the Padres dealt with it in familiar ways. Their contact-fueled offense took advantage of Yankees setup man Devin Williams’ lack of precision and then a couple of pitches that closer Luke Weaver delivered over the plate. The majors’ most suffocating bullpen, on the other hand, got four mostly spotless innings from Yuki Matsui, Ryan Bergert (who recorded his first major-league win), Jeremiah Estrada and Robert Suarez.
“Once the boys get going, we’re a tough train to stop,” Wade said.
Before Merrill, another potential MVP candidate, went down with a hamstring strain, the Padres went 8-2 and tied for the best start in franchise history. They have gone 15-9 in his absence, averaging a pedestrian 3.8 runs per game, but still receiving stout pitching performances and still finding other ways to succeed.
And Merrill is due back Tuesday. Cronenworth could return Friday.
Once all the Padres are back, they could be even tougher to stop. Monday, despite the rain and a rare ejection, supplied the latest evidence.
“You can see what kind of team we are, man,” Tatis said. “Everybody has each other’s back over here. It doesn’t matter the circumstances.”
(Top photo of Fernando Tatis Jr. reacting after being called out on strikes: John Jones / Imagn Images)