Dodger pitcher Zach Greinke stands his ground against charging Padre Carlos Quentin.
Benches cleared, punches thrown, bones broken. I know Padres fans love to chant “Beat L.A.” but this was ridiculous! That Carlos Quentin, whom a livid Dodger Manager Don Mattingly rightfully called “stupid,” should be kicked out of baseball. He leans over the plate on a 3-2 count and then charges the mound when he gets hit? As Mattingly says, he doesn’t even know how the game works. What a maroon!
Now our No. 2 pitcher, Zach Greinke, is out with a broken collar bone.
I’ve never seen Mattingly so pissed off. I swear I saw steam coming out of his ears as he spoke with reporters after the game. He said Quentin should not be allowed to play until Greinke is able to pitch again. “If he plays before Greinke pitches,” Mattingly said, “something is wrong.”
The Dodgers won, miraculously, 3-2, on a pinch-hit solo homer by Juan Uribe, of all people. (It was Uribe’s second home run of the series.)
I was listening to the first inning when Adrian Gonzalez gave the boys in blue an early lead with a two-run homer, and I thought maybe it would be that breakout night when we would score tons of runs and embarrass the shit out of San Diego. But no. Those tons of runs were all left on base as we stranded 12 more runners, making our LOB in this early season a whopping 75. That has to be a record.
In fact after the brawl in the bottom of the sixth, the Padres tied it up, 2-2, making Uribe’s eighth-inning shot the game-winner. Woo hoo! But also, boo hoo! Greinke will be on the DL for up to six weeks, and Matt Kemp and Jerry Hairston face possible suspensions for their actions during the melee.
So we won and lost all at the same time.
Piewalla's Dodger Blues 