Dodgers’ Greinke will miss 8 weeks

Associated Press

Zack Greinke’s pitch sailed up and into Carlos Quentin’s upper left arm, and it was on.

A little personal history was at play, as were rules that aren’t in any rule book.

Now the Dodgers will be without their $147 million pitcher for several weeks. Greinke needs surgery to repair a broken collarbone, and Los Angeles says he is expected to return in eight weeks.

Speaking to reporters before the Dodgers played Arizona on Friday night, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he wasn’t surprised by the extent of Greinke’s injuries.

“We knew last night, for the most part, that it was going to be extended,” he said. “You know, it’s unfortunate.”

Quentin has been suspended eight games and Los Angeles infielder Jerry Hairston Jr. suspended one game by Major League Baseball for their roles in the brawl Thursday night.

Hairston incited a second melee when he ran across the field gesturing at someone in the Padres dugout.

Quentin and Hairston are playing, pending appeal by the players’ association.

No discipline was announced for Greinke or Matt Kemp, both ejected along with Quentin and Hairston.

After Quentin got hit, the San Diego Padres’ slugger took a few steps onto the grass. When Greinke, Los Angeles’ prize offseason signing, appeared to say something, Quentin tossed his bat aside and rushed the mound.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Greinke dropped his glove and the two players lowered their shoulders. The 6-2, 240-pound Quentin — who as a high school senior was named his league’s defensive player of the year as an outside linebacker — slammed into the pitcher.

Quentin and Greinke ended up at the bottom of a huge scrum as players from both sides ran onto the field and jumped in.

Greinke took the brunt of the blow, breaking his left collarbone and inciting a fight.

“It’s a man’s game on the field,” Quentin said. “Thoughts aren’t present when things like this happen.”

Quentin said later that getting plunked by pitches by Greinke during the 2008 and 2009 seasons was justification enough to charge the mound when it happened again.

If Greinke hadn’t said anything, “There’s a chance I don’t” rush the mound, Quentin said. “Like I said, there is a history there, which is the reason I reacted like I did. Who knows what happens if he doesn’t say anything or if he motions that it wasn’t intentional?”

While pitching for Kansas City against the Chicago White Sox on July 18, 2008, Greinke hit Quentin with a pitch near the left wrist, loading the bases. Then on April 8, 2009, Greinke hit Quentin between the shoulders in the fourth inning after throwing one high and tight during Quentin’s previous at-bat. Quentin took about a step toward the mound then, before plate umpire Bill Hohn jumped in front of him.

At its core, the brawl was about baseball’s quirky decorum. The game naturally has a tension between pitchers and batters over balls thrown over the inside of the plate, and sometimes that flares into disagreement over who “owns” the inside half. Even if Greinke missed his location on the pitch that hit Quentin, the slugger apparently felt there was intent to hit him.