‘Crazy’: Padres & Nationals players describe shooting horror as White House press sec Psaki throws first pitch at restarted game

Members of the Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres baseball teams have spoken on the scary scenes which played out following a shooting outside National Park during their MLB game on Saturday night.

The top of the sixth inning had just finished in front of around 33,000 fans when a series of shots were heard coming from South Capitol Street outside the ground.

In the heat of the moment, however, nobody could be certain whether the gunfire was inside the ballpark or elsewhere.

Later, it was confirmed by the Metropolitan Police Department's executive assistant police chief Ashan Benedict that an exchange took place between people in two vehicles leaving three injured – including a woman who was attending the Nationals-Padres game and was shot whilst outside the stadium.

And with the dust now settled on the incident, those in the vicinity have begun to speak out. 

Helping to open a gate to the terraces and ushering in a group to the dugout for shelter, Padres star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr was hailed as a hero when bolting from the bench to the left-field line.

"Our family, loved ones, little kids. [I] feel like somebody needed to go get them," Tatis said on Sunday.

"I feel like the safest place was the clubhouse and we were trying to get our families into a safe place."

Padres manager Jayce Tingler was making his way to talk to plate umpire Jordan Baker regarding a pitching change at the time the shots rang out, and recalled how Baker asked him: "Did you hear that?"

"I’m like, 'yeah, I think so' and it kind of registered what it possibly could have been and obviously it was just a nightmare," Tingler explained.

Chaos ensued, as Tatis described, with some punters rushing to leave the stadium and others ducking and seeking cover.

"Everybody running. It was crazy," Tatis said.

"You couldn’t figure out what was going on. If it was one or two people. I was just trying to get to the safest place and get our families."

"The situation changed immediately. There’s no longer players, fans. I feel like everybody’s just people, human beings trying to be secure," remarked Tatis, who has received praise alongside fellow Padres stars Manny Machado and Wil Myers for their heroics.

On the other side of the ball, Nationals manager Davey Martinez has detailed how he made sure his stars were safe.

"Then I started worrying about their families and trying to do the best I could to get them down to the players," he said.

"And I started worrying about the fans as well.”

"There was a bunch of fans, they were in our dugout and I wanted to get them safe as well," Martinez, who described the fans as "our family", went on.

"We got them in through the tunnel and got them in safely and tried to keep them safe. For me it was just about protecting our people and doing the best I can to stay calm."

Benedict divulged that the two people in one of the cars later stumbled into a local hospital nursing gunshot wounds, and are being questioned by investigators.

The seriousness of their injuries hasn't been made clear yet, with the female fan's non-life threatening.

At present, investigators are still trying to track down the occupants of the second vehicle, with a $10,000 reward put up for information that leads to arrests and convictions.

The game was brought to a halt upon the shooting, and finally completed on Sunday with the visiting Padres rounding off a 10-4 win.

Already scheduled for such duties, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki threw out the first pitch to home plate before a much smaller crowd with many empty seats easy to see.

But the Nationals made sure they praised those present for the incident, who handled themselves "in a very admirable manner".

"You stayed calm, you helped one another," read a statement.

"We have always known that we have the best fans in baseball. Last night, you showed it. Davey Martinez said it best - our fans are our family. Thank you."