Diamondbacks manager Hale on tension with Dodgers: ‘We just want to play ball’

The Hatfields and the McCoys.

The Capulets and the Montagues.

Oil and water.

The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Sometimes, things just do not get along. The feuds are the stuff of lore (or science), and no matter what happens, what is will always be.

However, in the case of the D-backs and Dodgers — whose tiff dates all the way back to 2011 and has featured incidents in 2013 and 2015 — in spring training — it appears that maybe, just maybe, peace is being given a chance.

Plenty of players have been hit by pitches, punches have been thrown, people have been suspended. Entertaining? Maybe. But productive? Probably not.

A guest of Burns and Gambo on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Tuesday, D-backs manager Chip Hale talked about a chat he had with Dodgers skipper Don Mattingly.

“We just talked because that whole situation that got out of hand over there in Glendale, he was really great about saying, ‘Hey, the baseball game is the most important thing’ and if there was anything they did or anything we did, that was out of line he apologized, and I said the same thing,” Hale said. “We just want to play ball. We have such good teams and we want good competition, don’t want anything else involved with it.”

The Dodgers and D-backs have a history of, if not brawling, sending messages via pitches thrown at batters. Or at least, that’s the way it seems.

But Hale, who last week said the Dodgers want to talk and are “good at it,” said Tuesday players today have a tendency to react incorrectly to being hit by a pitch.

“I think what happens nowadays is everybody is so sensitive to being hit that we get into these situations,” he said. “As long as the ball is not around the face and the had area, I think we’re OK with everything.

“Hopefully we can just play some baseball.”

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