Clarifying Nats' comments after Tuesday's incident with Padres

SAN DIEGO – Let’s be very clear from the start: The Nationals did not intentionally hit Jurickson Profar during Tuesday’s game. Nor did manager Davey Martinez suggest that they did so during his postgame press conference.

Yes, Keibert Ruiz confronted Profar before his first at-bat last night, leading to both benches and bullpens clearing. Yes, MacKenzie Gore hit Profar with the first pitch. But the left-hander hit the back foot of the switcher-hitter, who was standing in on the right-handed side of the plate. A nearly impossible feat to accomplish on purpose.

And yes, Martinez said he was proud of the way his team – i.e. Ruiz – handled the situation by having a conversation, not by using physical retaliation.

As is commonplace on social media nowadays, some misinformation circulated online this morning speculating otherwise. And that’s the proper word for what happened because Martinez’s quotes were taken totally out of context.

For proper context, the portion of the manager’s postgame session that aired on MASN’s “Nats Xtra” postgame show started after the first couple of questions were already asked and didn’t include the question that Martinez was answering.

Here’s how the conversation actually occurred:

Reporter 1: “Did you anticipate that something like that in the first inning could or would happen?”

Martinez: “I didn't anticipate anything. But like I said, it happened. The boys fired up. You could see the guys that carry that emotion, Machado for them, Winker for us. Sometimes you gotta learn how to play like that. I think we did a pretty good job. We really did. We'll get them tomorrow.”

Reporter 2: “Keibert being the catcher signed to a long contract extension, how do you view his role on the team?”

Martinez: “Hey, he felt like he needed to say something. Honestly, I was proud of him. I really was. Like I said, sometimes you carry emotions on your sleeve. Sometimes you swallow it. But I liked the fact that he stuck up for our guys. and so be it.”

Reporter 1: “When you talk about being proud of him, is there anything about him in particular, him being the one to stand up, that fills you with any more pride?”

Martinez: “Na. Any one of the guys that steps up like that is awesome. He confronted him. That's all it really took. For me, it was a good way to send a message. Like, 'Hey, great you hit the ball (Monday night). You won the game (on a walk-off Monday). But we're not going to tolerate that (celebrating in the direction of the Nats dugout).'"

Reporter 1: “When you say 'not tolerate that,' can you walk through specifically?”

Martinez: “I’ll just leave it at that.”

Martinez, Gore and Ruiz then would all go on to say they had no intentions of hitting Profar. Ruiz even told Profar as much during their conversation.

Reporter 3: “After waiting around in their first ending, MacKenzie's first pitch to Profar hits him in the back foot. Were you worried at all that he would get ejected for that?”

Martinez: “No. I mean, if he gets ejected right, there was gonna be some serious issues. But no. He hit him with a breaking ball, so he was just trying to get the ball down.”

Now to be fair, Gore did not hit Profar with a breaking ball. MLB Gameday tracked it as a 98 mph fastball. But again, in the back foot. Here’s the pitcher’s retelling of the situation:

Reporter 3: “Your first pitch to Profar unintentionally hits him in the back foot. Is that kind of a product of you just kind of having to sit around for a little bit without being able to keep warming up?”

Gore: “Yeah, and then it was like, 'Uh oh,' just because that happened right after everything. So yeah, that was not (intentional). But nothing happened, which was great. And then I made another bad pitch to give up the homer.”

Reporter 1: “When you hit him, it looked like you grimaced. Did you think that you were gonna get ejected? What was kinda your thought process?”

Gore: “I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure.”

And finally, here’s Ruiz on his conversation with Profar:

Reporter 3: “Keibert, can you walk us through what happened between you and Profar tonight?”

Ruiz: “It was nothing crazy. We were just having a conversation about what he did yesterday. But it was nothing really crazy.”

Reporter 2: “Why did you feel like it was important to have a conversation with him?”

Ruiz: “Just to let him know, and he knows, he didn't do good yesterday. That was it. We don't want to hit him because that's bad for him. He's having a good season, he's having a great year. But I feel like I just got to let him know he's got to show us respect.”

Reporter 1: “I'm curious when you say you had to let him know, you said 'respect,' I'm curious, can you walk us through the contents of maybe what he said back to you?”

Ruiz: “He didn't agree. He said, 'Hey, if you want to hit me, hit me.' But I said, 'Hey, we don't want to hit you. Just letting you know that what you did yesterday (wasn’t appreciated).' That was it.”

Reporter 1: “Did you plan to have a conversation with him coming into the game or did it just kind of happen in that moment?”

Ruiz: “Yeah, just in the moment. The emotion, the adrenaline, this ballpark get you excited. And yeah, that was it.”

And that’s that. Nothing else should be made of what happened or what was said after the game.

Hopefully both teams move forward from this. But there is one game left to play, with Profar leading off for the Padres and 23-year-old DJ Herz, who has had control issues, making his fifth major league start for the Nats.

More fireworks may come. But hopefully we can look at everything in the proper context.

As Ildemaro Vargas said to the D.C. media members in the clubhouse this morning: “Everything is fine.”