Dodgers Clap Back at Padres' Manny Machado, Mike Shildt in Epic Fashion

"They've got way more superstars over there," Machado said. "(If) we want to hit somebody, they've got some big dogs over there we could hit."

Mike Shildt, the Padres' manager, had some choice words for Pages himself as the 24-year-old outfielder stared down his pitcher.

It doesn't take a professional lip-reader to surmise that Shildt was questioning Pages' self-assessment of his own importance.

The Dodgers kept the receipts.

In a series of posts to the team's official Twitter/X account Tuesday, the Dodgers made a couple allusions to the Padres' comments about Pages.

"And that's who Andy Pages is!" read the words in two separate posts — a clear nod to Shildt questioning who Pages thought he was when staring down Cease.

"Big Dog, Andy Pages," read another post, an obvious subtweet directed at Machado.

Pages' big night raised his batting average for the season to .293. He has 15 home runs, 49 RBIs, and is on pace for an outstanding 6-WAR season according to both Baseball Reference and FanGraphs.

Pages' 2.9 fWAR is 15th in MLB, trailing only Shohei Ohtani among his teammates, and an ironic 0.1 ahead of Machado.

Why did Pages take offense to being hit with a pitch in the first place?

“They thought I was relaying signs when I was jumping at second base, I think,” Pages said in Spanish. “It’s impossible that he can’t miss a slider on the corner and he missed a fastball a strike zone inside.”

Pages told reporters after Wednesday's game that he saw a clip of Shildt's lip-reading moment and "didn't pay much attention to it."

Whether he was carrying extra motivation with him Tuesday or not, Pages' performance made the difference in a two-run win that extended the Dodgers' lead in the National League West to five games over the third-place Padres.