Basebrawl San Diego Style

(Image Capture Fox Sports Prime Ticket)

I think it's safe to say that the Padres aren't going anywhere this year, so here's an idea they went with tonight.  Destroy the Dodgers season with an insane brawl and knock a couple of their multi-million dollar players out for a substantial period of time.  Hey, if you can't hit him with the bats, brawl him with your fists.   The strategy proved effective in getting Greinke out of the game.  

As Padre outfielder Carlos Quentin charged the mound and fought the Dodger right-hander, who ended up on the bottom of a pile in a fight, I had a bad feeling from the beginning.  I was seriously hoping he'd do the Guillermo Mota "two step" and dance his way to the outfield grass until the reinforcements arrived to protect him, but Greinke wasn't going to back down.  No way, no how.  He's a tough guy who won't back down from a fight.   It's always a bad thing for a pitcher making $150 million to find himself at the bottom of a pile of 20 men clawing at each other.

Did Greinke intentionally hit Quentin?  It's highly unlikely as it occurred in a 2-1 game and on a 3-2 pitch.   Add that to the fact that Quentin has made a career of getting in the way of inside fastballs. The last thing Greinke wanted to do was put the leadoff hitter and tying run on base to start off the 6th.

So we are staring at a Greinke injury for who knows how long and a suspension of Kemp.  When MLB suspends Quentin what punishment is that for the Padres?  They're doing them a favor.  This is a "win-win" for that organization.  The Padres are so bad that there's nobody on that roster that is worth retaliating against at a future date.

The intent of Quentin to injure Greinke was so blatant, he deserves the book to be thrown at him.  I'm talking a long suspension.  This whole situation is seriously messed up.  The Dodgers have announced that the condition of Greinke won't be made public until after the game.  That can't be good news.

Stay tuned.

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Update: Zack Greinke has a fractured left collarbone and will see Dr. Neil El Attrache tomorrow in Los Angeles.   At that time we'll have a time table as to how long he'll be out and see whether he needs surgery.

Twitter is going ballistic with moronic Padre fans actually defending Quentin's actions.

Don Mattingly was as mad as I've ever seen him in the post game news conference.  Unbelievably, Quentin places all the blame on Greinke.  Now Dylan Hernandez is tweeting that Kemp and Quentin had to be separated by teammates after having an altercation in the hallway outside the locker rooms.

You can't make this stuff up.

My prediction.  There is a silver lining in all of this.  The Dodgers will become even more unified as a team.  Matt Kemp will wake up and start playing with some fire.  Ted Lilly's days as a Dodger are prolonged as he'll be called up and return to the rotation.