Machado, Tatis apologize to fans for Padres’ dugout dustup

Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. stretched side by side, talking in Spanish and laughing.

Then they played catch, standing next to each other, and participated in infield drills.

Before heading to the Padres clubhouse, where their lockers remain adjacent, they stood in front of recorders and cameras held by media members and essentially said there was nothing more to talk about.

Machado, who called Tatis his “little brother,” did most of the talking throughout a brief period of questions and answers — after he made an opening statement during which he said they both apologized to the fans for what played out in the dugout Saturday night in St. Louis.

“This incident happened,” Machado said. “We’re here to address it. It happened in the dugout in a crucial situation for us. We’ve got to apologize to the fans for (having) to see that. We handled it internally as a team. We’re the leaders of this organization and this team. With the pressure of trying to win, the emotions that go through everything — Fernando over here is about to win the MVP, we’ve got a team that is trying to compete and get to a World Series, and we haven’t been playing great baseball. So emotions got involved and (they) get the better of us (sometimes). Those are situation we learn … and we get better from that.

“We’re here to take away the distractions of this team. We’ve got bigger fish to fry. We’ve got bigger things to worry about than something that is not a big deal. We’re going to go out there and play baseball. We’ve got 13 games left. We’ve to try to win all of them to get where we want to be.”

The pair spoke before the Padres played the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night at Petco Park. And they spoke after what happened as the Padres were preparing to take the field for the bottom of the fifth inning of Saturday’s game against the Cardinals.

What played out on a fan’s video posted to social media was Machado yelling repeatedly to Tatis, “It’s not (expletive) about you.”

Multiple sources said what preceded that was Tatis reacting angrily to third base coach Bobby Dickerson telling him to, essentially, pick his head up and go play as Tatis sat with his head down, having struck out in the top of the inning on a third strike he disputed. Machado then came between the two, which is when the fan’s recording began. Photographers near the dugout caught part of the exchange as well.

“It just happened,” Tatis said. “It’s part of baseball. It’s what this game brings out, especially when good players are trying to win and stuff is not going our way. At the end of the day, I’m glad it happened. I feel that brings us stronger. You go inside and talk about it and analyze it, you come together. … I feel it’s huge for us, huge for the team. We’re in a great spot.”

Speaking a few minutes later, Padres General Manager A.J Preller said: “Anytime you go through a little bit of adversity, you get better for it. It speaks to, they’re passionate, they want to win. You have disagreements with any family, then you make up and go forward. That doesn’t change how you feel about somebody. That’s just a disagreement on the bench. I think those guys handled it.”

Sources who spoke Saturday evening and Sunday said the incident in itself was not a big deal, not all that different from disagreements that fairly routinely arise in clubhouses throughout a long season — especially when a team is struggling as the Padres have in recent weeks.

The significance of the incident, many on and around the team said, is that it reached the point it did without manager Jayce Tingler stepping in well before Saturday. Several sources also said Tatis has exhibited frustration for some time with being unable to consistently perform at a level that can lift the Padres out of a skid that had seen them lose 24 of 34 games heading into Tuesday. While some said Dickerson’s timing wasn’t ideal, many agreed what he said to Tatis was past due.

Tatis, whose .882 OPS in September is well below his season mark but still leads the team, did not directly address that before Machado called an end to the gathering Tuesday.

“We’re done with that,” Machado said. “We’re not going to make it a bigger story than what it is. We’re here to play baseball.”

The Padres began Tuesday four games behind the Cardinals and one game behind the Cincinnati Reds in the race for the National League’s second (and final) wild-card spot.

“We got swept by St. Louis,” Machado said. “That left a (expletive) bad taste in our mouth. So we’re here to beat (Giants starter Kevin) Gausman tonight, win this series and win the next 13 games that are left. We need to win 13 if we want to get where we want to be.”