Dave Roberts reveals he fooled everyone with Dodgers-Padres Manny Machado drama

The fireworks during Game 2 of the Dodgers-Padres NLDS were, to put it mildly, ridiculous. Much of it was the Padres' fault, yes — how could one not be annoyed by Fernando Tatis Jr.? — but Dodgers fans didn't make their squad look good either, not when balls and trash were thrown onto the field. To cap it all off, there was what Ken Rosenthal called the "Sinister Sling" in an article for The Athletic that ended up getting him shunned from the Padres dugout in Game 3 (subscription required).

Manny Machado tossed a warmup ball to the Dodgers' bullpen, a little too fast and a little too close to Dave Roberts for the Dodgers' comfort. Roberts called it "unsettling" and said "there was intent behind it," and then the Dodgers went as far as to take the issue up with MLB — an exercise in futility if there ever was one. Nothing ever came of it, no one was punished, and the Dodgers lost that Game 10-2 before also dropping Game 3 to fall behind San Diego by a game.

But they came back with a vengeance in Game 4 to shut out the Padres, and during the winner-takes-all Game 5, it looked like the Padres had just completely rolled over and decided to call it quits.

With Game 2 about a week in the rearview and the Dodgers' NLCS future intact, Roberts admitted to blowing the entire situation with Machado out of proportion intentionally.

"It was [designed to take the pressure off his own players after their 10-2 loss in Game 2]," he noted (subscription required). "As a manager, you never want to make it about you. But I just felt in that situation, if we could take it off our guys a little bit … Manny and I have a really good relationship. I would take him any day. But I don’t think that diversion was a bad thing for our guys. And they responded by having my back."

Dave Roberts admits to calculated overreaction to Dodgers-Manny Machado beef during NLDS Game 2

The funniest thing about all of this might be that during the initial presser, when Roberts referred to the ball-throwing as "unsettling," he also alluded to a fractured relationship with Machado during their shared Dodgers tenure, before basically waving off that sentiment and complimenting Machado instead.

Roberts was obviously looking to fire up his guys somehow, and although it took two losses for that fire to kick in, they did come back with an admirable vengeance in Games 4 and 5. They actually showed fire and fight, two things they'd been sorely lacking in the face of the Padres' eternal inferiority complex.

If a little bit of ridiculous mind-gaming was what Roberts felt he needed to do as a manager, fine. A little bush league, but fine.