Hey everybody,
Forget about that Dodgers - giants feud that only the fans and the media seem to feel these days...
You want rivaly? I've got a gen-yoo-wine west coast blood feud for ya. It's been developing for the past 5 years or so, albeit quietly. At first, just like the L.A. - Frisco feud, only the fans felt it.
Even if you only watched Dodgers vs. Padres games on t.v. - if you were paying attention, you could hear what at times sounded like an LA. home game, even though the Dodgers were 100 miles south in Diego! During every game it was possible to hear LOUD chants of, "Here we go Dodgers, here we go! ", just as loudly as if the boys were at home in Chavez Ravine. How much do you think Padres fans loved that?
Tonight the rift between the two cities doubled in width and intensity as it reached the dugouts of both teams. And boy, did it ever...
Everything was under control (more or less) for one of the newest and most expensive Dodgers, starting pitcher, Zack Grienke.
It was a tight game, but Greinke was winning 2-1 in the 6th. He was pitching well enough to win - if only Matt Kemp would live up to one tenth of his hype. More on that in a later post.
6th inning, Dodgers winning 2-1. Padres are up. Enter the jerk...
Remember when everyone was calling for Luis Cruz's head following the WBC brawl? All Cruz did was request his pitcher drill the opposing batter in the ribs. Writers of every ilk were frothing over Cruz and blaming him for the fight, even though he didn't throw the pitches that set off that donnybrook. I argued against the "Down With Cruz" crowd, insisting that it was the pitcher who threw the actual PURPOSE pitches, not Cruz.
In tonight's game, the score was close, it was a 3-2 count, and that was hardly the time that a pitcher would purposefully hit a batter. Mr. Quentin, the proud wearer of many a pitch, the record holder of being hit by more pitches than anyone else over the past 5 seasons, crowded the plate with his entire left arm, and proceeded to not make ANY attempt to get out of the way of a pitched ball, and whattyaknow - was hit by a pitch.
Just like Cruz's WBC pitcher, Quentin had a choice. He could have taken his base, since the weak umpire was going to let a guy who doesn't try to get out of the way of a pitch have a free base.
But instead he chose to charge the mound.
Greinke tossed his glove to the ground and Quentin charged like a bull. Greinke got low like they teach in football, so did Quentin. Quentin absolutely rocked into Zack. Our $147 million, no. 2 ace pitcher, thus had his collarbone broken by some jerk who doesn't have the sense to even TRY to get out of the way of a baseball.
What followed was a pretty awesome bench clearing basebrawl...
Unfortunately for the Dodgers, Quentin weighs about 50 punds more than Greinke and he had a full head of steam when he hit him. Zack ended up with a broken collarbone and he'll end up missing about 6 to 8 weeks of the season.
Although he wasn't hit by a pitch, or charged by a rhino, I don't think there was anyone hotter than this guy...
Kemp is so frustrated about becoming an easy out in the Dodger's line up, that he really let all of his frustrations fly and he added plenty of fuel to tonight's brouhaha.
The real story that smart reporters oughtta be chasing is what exactly was Kemp saying when he was forcefully poking his fingers into fellow Dodger Andre Ethier's chest and barking at him like Ethier was the enemy? Andre quietly walked away and Kemp then turned his anger at some nearby umps. That's the inside Dodger's scoop right there.
Meanwhile, this guy...
...is slowly starting to become a force to be reckoned with. He blasted another homer tonight.
After the game, reporters asked Greinke if the Dodgers and Padres have a history of bad blood. Greinke said he doesn't know if any existed before, but it seems as though there is now.
The season is just starting - the Dodgers and Padres hate each other, and we won tonight!
I love baseball!
