Padres Beat Dodgers 6-3 In First Meeting Since Brawl

The San Diego Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-3 just five days after the two teams benches cleared in the sixth inning of a Dodgers 3-2 win. Zack Greinke hit Carlos Quentin with a pitch, and Quentin charged the mound a few moments later and collided with Greinke.

After the brawl ended and the Dodgers went on to win, Greinke was diagnosed with a fractured collarbone while Quentin was suspended for eight games. Since the brawl, the Padres were swept by the Colorado Rockies before beating the Dodgers Monday.

Starting pitcher Eric Stults led the way for the Padres with a three-run homer in the second inning while giving up three runs off nine hits in six innings of work on the mound. Stults struck out four and walked one on the way to his second win of the season.

Stults’ home run in the second inning gave the Padres a 3-0 lead early in the contest. The Dodgers fought back and scored three runs over the next three innings to tie the game.

Adrian Gonzalez started it off with a ground-rule double in the third that drove in Carl Crawford. The following inning, Crawford drove in Luis Cruz with a single to right field before A.J. Ellis hit an RBI-single to tie the game in the fifth.

Stults settled down in the sixth after giving up a run in three straight innings and got the Dodgers in order. The sixth would be Stults last inning of work, but he managed to get the decision after the Padres took the lead in the top half of the seventh.

Chris Denorfia walked with the bases loaded to make it 4-3 Padres before Yonder Alonso grounded into a double-play that brought in Jesus Guzman. San Diego then looked to their bullpen to shut down the Dodgers and end their five-game losing streak.

Brad Bach kept the lead at two with a scoreless seventh inning before Luke Gregerson got out of a jam in the eighth. Padres outfielder Kyle Blanks hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth to add to the Padres lead before Huston Street took the mound for the save.

Street hasn’t received many save opportunities to start the season but he got the job done on Monday against a powerful Dodgers lineup. Street gave up a single to Jerry Hairston Jr. to start the inning before Crawford lined out to left field for the first out.

Mark Ellis followed with a fielders choice before Matt Kemp flied out to end the game. The key save was Street’s second of the early season for the struggling Padres.

There wasn’t a benches-clearing brawl on Monday, and Carlos Quentin was already serving his suspension and didn’t appear in the game. Not one batter was hit by a pitch in the match-up, and any sort of tension seemed to disappear within the first few innings.

Will the benches-clearing brawl last week affect the final two games of the Dodgers-Padres series after San Diego took the first game 6-3 on Monday?

[Image via Jim Ellwanger]