Two baseballs flew down toward the San Diego Padres’ Jurickson Profar from the left-field corner stands, the gutless moves of two cowards.

Numerous water bottles flew down toward the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. from the right-field corner stands, the gutless moves of many cowards.

More than a game was lost Sunday night when the Padres equaled the National League Division Series at one game apiece with a 10-2 victory over the Dodgers.

An already tattered image was further damaged. An historically bad reputation was further stained. Anyone out there walking around town wearing a Dodger jersey today should be embarrassed.

On a national stage, a few bad actors among the largest Dodger Stadium crowd of the season only furthered the harmful narrative that Chavez Ravine is a place stocked with punks.

In a startling display for a game of this magnitude, a pack of sorry spectators caused the game to be stopped for nearly 10 minutes before the bottom of the seventh inning while balls and bottles rained down on the field.

“I’ve seen over a thousand games here, well over a thousand games in this ballpark, and I’ve never seen anything like that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So obviously there’s a lot of emotions and things like that. But that’s something that should never happen.”

The Dodger fans had once again let the taunting, preening Padres get under their skin.

“Dodger fans, they were just not happy,” Tatis said. “They’re losing the game, obviously, and just a lot of back and forth. What can I say? I wish they could control it a little bit more, their emotions.”

To make matters worse, the Dodgers also let the Padres get under their skin, wilting under a barrage of Padres aggressiveness on a night when the visitors danced all over Dodger Stadium with six home runs, a stolen home run, and all sorts of celebrations to accompany it all.

“That’s one of those that you just kind of want to wash away and get to the next day,” Roberts said.

The Padres were tacky, but that was no excuse for Dodgers fans to be idiots. Their actions impossibly turned the Padres bad actors into the good guys.

“It was a bunch of dudes that showed up in front of a big, hostile crowd with stuff being thrown at them and said, ‘We’re going to talk with our play; we’re not going to back down; we’re going to elevate our game; we’re going to be together; and we’re going to take care of business,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.

The Padres were on the attack, but that was no excuse for the Dodgers to retreat behind spotty pitching from Jack Flaherty and impatient hitting against aging Padres starter Yu Darvish. They turned a reeling Padres team into winners.

“It was ugly,” said Roberts. “It was ugly.”

The best-of-five series now moves to San Diego’s Petco Park, where, thanks to Sunday’s disturbance, the rowdy Padre fans will now be poised to retaliate. They don’t like the Dodgers down there. Now they’re going to like them a lot less.

“I know we’re about to go back to San Diego with a very, very loud, raucous, aggressive, hungry crowd that’s going to be super excited and going to be getting after it,” said Shildt. “But I know also that we’ll stay classy, San Diego.”

The Dodgers will not only be clunking down the 5 Freeway on the flattened tires of lousy starting pitching, but they could also be without Freddie Freeman, whose badly sprained ankle led him to leave Sunday’s game in the sixth inning.

Winning two out of three against a surging Padres team that suddenly has home-field advantage was already going to be a tough chore. What happened Sunday is going to make it tougher.

After the security stoppage in the seventh inning, Manny Machado led the Padres in what appeared to be an emotional impromptu team meeting in their dugout. They were holding a 4-1 lead at the time. In the final three innings they outscored the Dodgers 6-1.

“Just regroup, resettle,” said Tatis of the meeting. “The game was on our side. We know what we’re capable of. And, man, it was just a reminder who we really are as a group and just how crazy we can turn a place to go nuts. That’s all it was about.”

San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado shouts at Dodgers players in the dugout during Sunday’s game.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Advertisement

When recounting Game 2, it’s important not to cast Padres as unblemished heroes. In fact, they started it all.

In the first inning, Profar lunged into the left-field corner stands to steal a home run from Mookie Betts. Ironically, in one moment where it would have been good for Dodger fans to be aggressive, they got tentative by allowing Profar to make the catch. Profar then taunted those fans by facing the stands and dancing in their faces.

In the fourth inning, it got worse after Tatis made a lunging catch of a Freeman drive in right field. He then proceeded to sarcastically lead the profane chants of fans in the right-field pavilion.

The bad blood reached a boiling point in the sixth inning when Flaherty hit Tatis in the side, leading to a stare from the tempestuous right fielder and words from Profar.

Moments later, with Tatis and Profar on first and second, Machado struck out, after which Flaherty appeared to shout a profane taunt at him that led to shouts from both dugouts.

Flaherty was removed from the game after the strikeout, but that didn’t quell the jawing, as Flaherty stood on the fringes of the dugout and continued to verbally spar with Machado throughout the bottom of the sixth.

One inning later, after the seventh-inning stretch, the chaos broke loose as both Profar and Tatis were surrounded by security guards while public address announcer Todd Leitz pleaded for order.

The rest of the game was completed without incident.

But, in a series in which Roberts urged his team to throw the first punch, the Padres have punched back, and the Dodger fans have punched badly, and this dance is just getting started.

DURHAM, N.C. — Twenty minutes were just a taste.

Or really, a tease.

Only so much can be gleaned from these preseason, meet-the-team, intrasquad events, like Duke’s Countdown to Craziness on Friday night. They’re as much about the schtick — mood lighting, air cannons, silly introductory dances — as any actual basketball. And, obviously, they don’t count.

But they do have meaning.

Especially in the case of this projected top-five preseason team — with the country’s top freshman in Cooper Flagg and a bevy of other NBA hopefuls — this is a glimpse. A snapshot of what’s possible. So when you see junior guard Tyrese Proctor on the fast break, with Flagg — the expected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft — sprinting ahead of him, and then you see Proctor kick ahead an outlet pass, and you see Flagg loading up as he takes off toward the rim …

Well, you start imagining the possibilities. About the high-flying acrobatics about to unfold, yes, but also beyond. Your mind skips forward, to the sorts of spectacular plays and games this team may have in store if it can deliver on even a fraction of the still-growing hype surrounding it.

The moment, at least, delivered: Flagg effortlessly elevated off the Cameron Indoor court, twisted backward in midair and flushed home a highlight dunk with a ho-hum attitude.

His face seemed to say, more to come.

“You can’t really describe it, the feeling when you’re out there playing,” Flagg said. “That type of stuff is something you can’t really experience until it happens.”

Flagg finished the night with 13 points — third-most overall, considering players were switching teams at halftime — as well as three rebounds, three assists, and two turnovers. He was … good, if not overly deferential.

“I thought Cooper tonight was being a little hesitant, and just getting a feel for things,” coach Jon Scheyer said. “That’s the beauty of Coop: He’s such a team player, and he has such a great feel for the game.”

That much was evident, even on his first basket. The 6-foot-9 Maine native drove left from outside the arc, then switched the ball to his right hand in midair, showcasing the touch and inside finishing he’s so known for. From the first row of Duke’s student section, through the raucous applause, you could hear one Cameron Crazie note the occasion:

Those were Cooper Flagg’s first points at Duke.

The novelty around Flagg, especially early on — and especially if he’s as good as expected, anywhere near the Zion Williamson stratosphere that no one in college hoops has occupied since — will be a thing. His first dunk. First pick six. First 20-point game, first double-double. All of it. It will be noted, diligently, the continuing ascent of someone already deemed “generational” by the masses before his 18th birthday. (That’s Dec. 21, by the way; Georgia Tech drew the short stick and hosts the Blue Devils that night.)

Flagg, of course, can’t look at this season that way. Neither can his teammates, many of whom — like fellow freshmen Khaman Maluach and Kon Knueppel — will likely be following him to the NBA as early as next June. If Duke learned anything from its star-studded 2018-19 season with Williamson, it’s how to handle the spectacle that follows a phenomenon.

“You’ve just gotta stay present,” Proctor said. “Everyone knows who Coop is. Everyone knows who Khaman is. Everyone knows who all these guys are. So I think from day one, everyone has been on the same page. We haven’t necessarily had to sit down and talk about, ‘It’s going to be we over me.’ Everyone sort of knows that.”

But saying so in front of your home fans, on a night that’s more ceremonial than serious, is one thing — and maintaining that after a tough early-season stretch is another entirely. In the first month of the season, Duke plays (deep breath) Kentucky in the Champions Classic in Atlanta, at Arizona, versus Kansas in Las Vegas, all before hosting Auburn in the ACC-SEC Challenge in early December. That’s three of The Athletic’s top 10 preseason teams, one after another after another. We’ll have a good sense by Flagg’s birthday of the kind of talent he is, what kind of team Duke is — and how fair the national title expectations for this squad really are.

Friday was a taste of all that, a 20-minute morsel before the 30-plus games Duke has coming over the next five — maybe six — months.

It’s nothing worth overreacting to.

But it is, if nothing else, worth noting. Because Friday was Flagg’s, and Duke’s, beginning.

“I liked seeing him in a Duke uniform tonight,” Scheyer said. “I know that much.”

(Photo: Grant Halverson / Getty Images)

Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys fans were sent a dire warning as thunderstorms rolled through Acrisure Stadium on Sunday night, which delayed their kickoff.

Stadium officials posted a message to social media telling fans to get to cover as the storms came into the area. The NBC broadcast showed lightning across the sky.

“Weather update: Fans in attendance at tonight’s game, please take cover in the concourses and in the FedEx Great Hall,” the message read.

The game was set to begin at 8:20 p.m. ET. The Steelers were about to be introduced when NFL officials decided to delay the start of the game.

Pittsburgh was looking to stymie the Dallas offense. They entered the game 3-1 behind starting quarterback Justin Fields and an elite defense led by T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick.

A message is seen on a large screen during a weather delay prior to an NFL football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

GIANTS BLOCK SEAHAWKS’ GAME-TYING FIELD GOAL ATTEMPT, RETURN BALL FOR CLUTCH TD

Fields has been a surprise after being thrust into the starting role for an injured Russell Wilson. He had 830 passing yards and three touchdown passes in the first four games of the season. He also has 145 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns.

The Cowboys barely got past the New York Giants last week. Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb got reacquainted as the wide receiver had seven catches for 98 yards and a touchdown.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Justin Fields works out prior to an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Dallas is down Micah Parsons and Deuce Vaughn for the game. The Cowboys placed Brandin Cooks and DeMarcus Lawrence on injured reserve earlier this week.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.