Dodger Fans Can Hit Carlos Quentin As Many Times As They Like Tonight

The Dodgers and Dodger fans want Carlos Quentin’s ass on a platter, but they will not get it. Not until June. But thanks to the magic of video games, and MLB 13 The Show‘s “The Show Live”, you can hit him in every single plate appearance he should have made at Dodger Stadium tonight.

Quentin is the meathead Padre who broke Zack Greinke’s collarbone in a benches-clearing brawl on Thursday. Baseball hustled out an eight-game suspension for him, to keep him from facing a firing squad on Jackie Robinson Night and turning that gala celebration of dignity and human triumph into a beanball war. All players have the right to appeal suspensions and continue playing as they do, but Quentin chose not to, meaning he won’t face the Dodgers again until June 3.

Who knows if that really will calm the situation tonight. When the guy who done the most wrong ain’t in the lineup (as is the case with American League pitchers who bean hitters), usually some whipping boy is sent out there to take it between the shoulder blades. Quentin’s transgression is so egregious — Greinke was a $US170 million acquisition from free agency this year — the Dodgers may prefer that he answer for it himself later.

However, The Show Live — MLB 13 The Show‘s new play-along/rewrite history mode giving you the day’s real lineups, has yet to reflect Quentin’s suspension. So Dodger fans can put him before a firing squad if they so choose tonight (and tomorrow and Wednesday nights, too.)

(Pro tip: He’ll get mad and charge the mound and get thrown out if you hit him three times with the same pitcher. So I took Billingsley out in the fifth inning and brought in Ronald Belisario to do the deed for that at-bat. Kenley Jensen blasted him in the eighth.)

It seems better for all involved if Quentin takes his medicine in a video game. Not shown in this video: the Dodgers won on a walk-off home run by Mark Ellis in the 10th inning. Had the game remained tied, Quentin would have led off the 11th (and assuredly would have been hit again.) The major league record for most times hit by pitch in a game is three (held by 21 players).