Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres Clear Benches, Break Bones in Brawl (Video)
By Josh Hill
Thursday night in sports started out with some exciting games across the grid, but it ended with a bitter and gruesome brawl in San Diego that not only saw the benches clear in the game between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers, it saw bodies fly and bones break. People are still getting a grasp on just what happened when Carlos Quentin charged Zack Greinke in the sixth inning last night, but the ramifications that will be felt are far from over.
The incident in question occurred in the sixth inning of last night’s game between the Padres and Dodgers. Los Angeles starter Zack Greinke hit Padres outfielder Carlos Quentin in the shoulder with a pitch, and unlike the last time Greinke hit Quentin back in 2009, no one held Quentin back and he charged the mound. Greinke lowered his shoulder to take the brunt of Quentin’s charge and it was revealed after the game that this ended up fracturing Greinke’s collarbone, effectively breaking it and sidelining the Dodgers start for the foreseeable future.
The brawl cleared both benches and when the dust settled, Quentin, Greinke, Matt Kemp and Jerry Hairston were all ejected from the game and all will likely received a fine at the very least. But the brawl didn’t end with ejections and post game apologies. Matt Kemp actually confronted Carlos Quentin after the game and the duo had to be separated by local San Diego police.
Kemp said after the game that it was Greinke’s injury that took him over the edge. The Dodgers MVP said that upon seeing Greinke’s shoulder “messed up” when he reached the mound, it was the match that lit the fuse on Kemp.
“I’m asking Greinke if he’s OK and he said his shoulder’s messed up,” Kemp said. “That kind of took me over the edge right there.”
We’ve likely not heard the end of this, as it clearly goes beyond any brawl we’ve seen in baseball in sometime. Kemp’s confrontation of Quentin after the game is wildly reminiscent of Carmelo Anthony stalking Kevin Garnett earlier this year when the two brawled on the court at Madison Square Garden. Of course to call Melo and Garnett’s scuffle a brawl in comparison to this doesn’t pain an accurate contrasting picture, but then again the intensity of the Dodgers-Padres brawl hasn’t been seen in any sport for a while.
The fines and suspensions will likely boil over to more than just the four players ejected on Thursday night. Greinke’s broken collarbone seriously complicates the matter and will be a gauge as to who gets the fines and.or suspensions and how hefty the punishment ends up being.