Police Called to Separate Matt Kemp and Carlos Quentin After Dodgers-Padres Brawl
By Josh Hill
The brawl between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres is still sinking in, as is all the incidents surrounding the brawl as well. Perhaps the biggest add-on to the brawl that claimed the collarbone of Dodgers righty Zack Greinke was the confrontation between Carlos Quentin and Matt Kemp in the tunnel of the stadium after the game.
Both Quentin and Kemp were among the players ejected after Thursday night’s brawl but they didn’t kiss and make up after the game was over. Kemp, still enraged by Quentin’s charging of the mound and subsequent breaking of Greinke’s collarbone, confronted the Padres outfielder after the game. According to reports, Kemp approached Quentin after the game at the player’s exit to the stadium and the two quickly went nose-to-nose. Padres pitcher Clayton Richardson had to get in the middle of the duo and San Diego police acting as security for the game intervened to pull the two apart.
“I think Carlos Quentin went to Stanford, something like that?” Kemp said after the game. “I heard there’s smart people at Stanford. That wasn’t too smart. Greinke didn’t do anything wrong. That stuff happens in the minor leagues. It doesn’t happen in the big leagues.”
Quentin spoke about the incident after the game as well, and he was far from apologetic for what happened. Quentin didn’t brag about the fact that he broke Greinke’s collarbone as deep down he likely feels bad about it, but Quentin did stop short of saying Greinke had it coming as he cited his “well-documented” history with the Dodgers pitcher.
“It’s unfortunate. It could have been avoided. You can ask Zack about that,” Quentin said. “I’ve been hit by many pitches. Some have been intentional, some have not been. For the amount I have been hit and my hitting style, I’m going to repeat: I have never reacted that way.”
Quentin and Greinke go back a ways as this marks the third time since 2008 that Greinke has hit Quentin with a pitch. But never before had the tensions between the two players boiled over to the point of bones breaking. Greinke insists that hitting Quentin on Thursday night was in no way intentional and said that Quentin is out of line in blaming him for inciting the riot.
“I never hit him on purpose,” said Greinke after the game. “I never thought about hitting him on purpose. He always seems to think that I’m hitting him on purpose, but that’s not the case. That’s all I can really say about it.”
Kemp and Quentin will likely receive suspensions for not only their part in the brawl but more so for their separate confrontation after the game. Carmelo Anthony was suspended one game for stalking Kevin Garnett after the duo scuffled at Madison Square Garden back in January. The situation was similar in that Melo brought the fight from the hardwood to the player’s tunnel and police had to be called to defuse the incident.
Baseball isn’t always the best at cleaning up an embarrassing situation like this, but based on the severity of the injury to Greinke and the longevity of the danger involved with the incident, something will be done to punish those involved, the only question is how hard will the hammer come down?