Arizona Diamondback and San Diego Padres: Just a Kick in the Stomach

After dropping the first two games of the series against the San Diego Padres, the Diamondbacks were attempting to salvage the final game before heading back to Phoenix, where they would face the New York Mets and the red-hot San Francisco Giants.

After staking themselves an early lead, the Diamondbacks watched as the Padres came back to tie the game and went ahead on a triple by San Diego shortstop Everth Cabrera. A mere 90 feet from scoring an all important insurance run, Cabrera got too far off the base.

A quick throw to Diamondbacks third baseman Mark Reynolds and Cabrera was tagged out. Both Reynolds and Cabrera became entangled. In the midst of this, Cabrera attempted to extricate himself by kicking Reynolds in the stomach.

Reynolds took exception to having someone kick him with metal baseball spikes. He jumped up and shoved Cabrera. That was all it took for players to come rushing onto the playing field from the dugouts and bullpens.

After a lot of words and some shoving, the umpires restored order on the field. Third base umpire Dana DeMuth determined Cabrera was a little too aggressive with his feet and tossed the shortstop out of the game.

It was unclear from replays whether Cabrera had intentionally kicked Reynolds, or if it was just a matter of two players getting caught up in the moment. I could not help but note the irony of this situation.

Watching the way the Diamondbacks have been playing these past two years feels just like getting kicked in the stomach. Maybe the team didn’t mean to kick the fans but at the time it sure felt personal.