home plate

ATLANTA — The center fielder for the Dodgers’ Class A Great Lakes affiliate is a former first-round draft pick. The other two outfielders were selected for the Futures Game.

Who’s the best outfielder on the team?

“We’re all good, brother,” said the left fielder, Josue De Paula. “We’ve all got talent. We all excel somewhere.

“Us together? It’s a dream squad. I don’t feel like you see that much talent that often.”

De Paula flashed his considerable talent Saturday, hitting a three-run homer that decided the National League’s 4-2 victory over the American League and earned him the Futures Game most valuable player award.

The only other Dodgers prospect to win that award: infielder Chin-Lung Hu, in 2007.

“This is definitely motivating for me,” De Paula said. “Mentally, it was a big moment, to prove, especially to myself, who I really am.”

De Paula’s home run traveled 416 feet, triggering a round of fireworks in the sky and a lump in De Paula’s throat as he crossed home plate.

“I was overtaken by emotion,” he said, “especially doing it in front of my dad.”

His father lives in New York City. The Midwest League is far away.

Perhaps the major leagues are not so far away. De Paula is 20, but he is in his fourth pro season. The Dodgers signed him out of the Dominican Republic, but he was born in New York City and he is a second cousin of former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury.

“Baseball called me,” De Paula said. “I fell in love with it at a young age.”

Zyhir Hope, the Great Lakes right fielder, also appeared in the Futures Game. He singled ahead of De Paula and scored on the home run, so he was waiting at home plate to congratulate De Paula.

“We do it often,” De Paula said, smiling.

Hope, also 20, smiled when asked what he liked about De Paula’s game.

“Everything,” he said. “He takes it easily. He’s calm, relaxed and laid back, but he works hard. He’s a great dude.”

Before the season, Baseball Prospectus ranked De Paula and Hope among the top 10 prospects in baseball. Currently, MLB Pipeline ranks both among the top 40.

De Paula offers power, speed, and advanced plate discipline, although scouts wonder whether he can stick in left field or might need to try first base or designated hitter. Hope has advanced from a good-fielding prospect with uncertain hitting skills in the Chicago Cubs’ system — the Dodgers got him in the Michael Busch trade — to a gap hitter with speed.

This is the time of year, of course, where contenders trade prospects to fill major league needs. Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, rarely trades his top prospects, and De Paula ranks No. 1 in the Dodgers’ farm system. On the other hand, the Dodgers need pitching help.

“I do want to get to L.A. I hope that’s in God’s plans,” De Paula said. “At the end of the day, we never make the decisions. We’ve just got to focus on what we need to do on the field and whatever happens, happens.

“But I really do hope I become a Dodger and I stay there for a very long time.”

Seven times in the last 10 days, the Dodgers and San Diego Padres have faced each other.

In the last inning of the last one of those games Thursday night, mounting tensions between the clubs — and their respective managers — finally spilled onto the field.

At the end of the Padres’ 5-3 win against the Dodgers, San Diego star Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit by a Dodgers pitcher for the third time over the two recent series between the National League West rivals.

Moments later, Dave Roberts and Mike Shildt were face-to-face, engaged in a screaming match that prompted both benches to empty in a heated melee behind home plate.

As soon as Tatis got plunked, taking a 93-mph fastball off his hands from debuting Dodgers rookie Jack Little, Shildt came storming out of the dugout, walking over to check on Tatis while barking in Roberts’ direction.

Whatever Shildt said, Roberts took exception. Suddenly, he was charging onto the field, too, meeting Shildt with a slight bump with his body while their two teams poured onto the field around them.

The benches clear as Padres batter Fernando Tatis Jr. is assisted by a team trainer after being hit on the hand by a pitch from Dodgers reliever Jack Little.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Padres and Dodgers players stand on the field after the benches clear in the ninth inning.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The scuffle didn’t get overly physical, with some light shoving between the clubs pushing the pile into the screen behind home plate. But emotions were running hot the whole time, with Roberts and Shildt having to be separated before each was ejected.

The fireworks didn’t stop there.

After the Dodgers (46-30) scored twice in the bottom of the ninth, Shohei Ohtani was hit by Padres closer Robert Suarez with two outs. This time, the benches stayed put — in part, it appeared, because Ohtani waved for his teammates to stay in the dugout as he walked up the first-base line. But because the umpires had issued warnings after the previous skirmish, Suarez was ejected, forcing the Padres (40-34) to turn to Yuki Matsui with the tying run at the plate.

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani reacts after being hit by a pitch from Padres pitcher Robert Suarez in the ninth inning. Suarez was ejected.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Matsui nearly blew it, walking Miguel Rojas (who had been inserted for Mookie Betts the inning before, with the game seemingly out of reach at 5-0) to load the bases before spiking a breaking ball against Dalton Rushing (who had pinch-hit for Will Smith for the same reason) that bounced under the chest protector of catcher Martín Maldonado, plating a run and moving the Dodgers’ other baserunners into scoring position.

Alas, Rushing struck out. The Padres held on. And a heated two-week stretch of rivalry baseball between the Southern California foes came to an end.