Petco Park

SAN DIEGO--What Carlos Quentin did to derail the Dodgers' season is pretty ugly. What he did to the derail the San Diego Padres' season might be worse. When Quentin threw Zack Greinke to the ground and broke his collarbone, the slugger said he was settling a score from years before he ever joined the Padres. Quentin appears satisfied, no matter how much pain he inflicted on the team that made him its highest-paid player, a team that had absolutely no quarrel with Greinke. PHOTOS: Dodgers vs. Padres The Padres need Quentin now, and desperately.

Powering down The San Diego Padres moved in the outfield fences this season, a nod to hitters frustrated when a home run anywhere else would be an out at Petco Park. In the Padres' first 10 home games, three balls that would have been outs last season went for home runs. "All for the other guys," Padres Manager Bud Black said. It's been that kind of start for the Padres, whose record through Friday was worse than any team other than the losing-by-design Houston Astros and Miami Marlins.

SAN DIEGO - With the Padres playing their home opener Tuesday, the Dodgers will be the first team to hit in Petco Park since it was renovated over the off-season. Long considered one of baseball's most pitcher-friendly parks, Petco Park is not as cavernous as it used to be. The wall that runs from right field to right center was brought in 11 feet. The wall in left-center was also moved in. The parts of right-center and left-center that were 402 feet away from home plate are now 391 and 390 feet away, respectively.

Tom Garfinkel, president and chief executive of the San Diego Padres, has been welcomed to the world of texts, tweets, Facebook and smartphone recordings. And Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke has an apology to show for it. In a meeting with season-ticket holders at Petco Park the day after the Greinke-Carlos Quentin brawl in San Diego, Garfinkel accused the Dodgers right-hander of hitting Quentin intentionally, blamed Greinke's broken collarbone on his decision to lower his shoulder protecting himself, and appeared to mock Greinke's social anxiety disorder by implying he has autism.

Powering down The San Diego Padres moved in the outfield fences this season, a nod to hitters frustrated when a home run anywhere else would be an out at Petco Park. In the Padres' first 10 home games, three balls that would have been outs last season went for home runs. "All for the other guys," Padres Manager Bud Black said. It's been that kind of start for the Padres, whose record through Friday was worse than any team other than the losing-by-design Houston Astros and Miami Marlins.

  SAN DIEGO -- The right-field wall at Petco Park is 11 feet closer to the plate than it was last season. Asked if that made the opposite field look any more inviting, Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp laughed. "When I'm on, can't no ballpark hold me," he said. BOX SCORE: Dodgers 4, Padres 3 He's probably right. But for the majority of other players, the renovations to one of baseball's most pitcher-friendly parks could make a difference.

It figured that Tony Gwynn would be involved in a big baseball game here. Gwynn's San Diego State Aztecs and the Houston Cougars played an Aztec Invitational game in front of 40,106 fans Thursday night, the biggest crowd in college baseball history. It was also the first game at the San Diego Padres' 42,000-seat Petco Park. The old record was 27,673, set when LSU and Tulane played in the Superdome in 2002. "This is plush.

The Lakers have won. The baseball season has come, at least to those casual sports fans who pay attention to Kobe first, everything else second. The National League West standings have not been printed upside down. The San Diego Padres are in first place, and closer Heath Bell figures he can put your thoughts into six words: "What, they've still got a team?" The Padres were supposed to be eliminated by Memorial Day. Adrian Gonzalez had been fitted for a Boston Red Sox uniform.

From San Diego The kingdom could be theirs, and theirs alone. There are no market monopolies among the major league teams this year, but there could be one next year. If the Chargers move from San Diego — most likely to Los Angeles — the Padres will become the only team in the majors without competition from the NFL, NBA or NHL. That might be about the most positive light the Padres could put on trading their best player over the winter: Adrian Gonzalez wasn't going to be here in two years anyway!

SAN DIEGO -- Pitcher's park? Please. The spacious field at Petco Park was made to look like a scaled-down version of itself on Wednesday night by Manny Ramirez, who crushed a pair of two-run home runs over the fence in right-center that stands 400 feet away from home plate in the Dodgers' 7-2 victory over the San Diego Padres. The Dodgers won the rubber match of a three-game series and opened a 3 1/2 -game gap on the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West.

SAN DIEGO--What Carlos Quentin did to derail the Dodgers' season is pretty ugly. What he did to the derail the San Diego Padres' season might be worse. When Quentin threw Zack Greinke to the ground and broke his collarbone, the slugger said he was settling a score from years before he ever joined the Padres. Quentin appears satisfied, no matter how much pain he inflicted on the team that made him its highest-paid player, a team that had absolutely no quarrel with Greinke. PHOTOS: Dodgers vs. Padres The Padres need Quentin now, and desperately.

Against the crummy San Diego Padres, in just the second week of the season, the Dodgers' title hopes took a difficult blow Thursday. Zack Greinke, the Dodgers' new $147-million starting pitcher, fractured his left collarbone in a sixth-inning brawl. After Greinke hit the Padres' Carlos Quentin with a pitch -- on a full count in a game the Dodgers were leading by a run - the outfielder took umbrage and charged the mound. The two rammed into each other with their shoulders.

  SAN DIEGO -- The right-field wall at Petco Park is 11 feet closer to the plate than it was last season. Asked if that made the opposite field look any more inviting, Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp laughed. "When I'm on, can't no ballpark hold me," he said. BOX SCORE: Dodgers 4, Padres 3 He's probably right. But for the majority of other players, the renovations to one of baseball's most pitcher-friendly parks could make a difference.

Last time the Dodgers saw Chad Billingsley, he was pitching the best baseball of his career. Then his right elbow screamed and he was shut down. The diagnosis was a partially torn elbow ligament, the kind that typically leads to Tommy John surgery. Which could have meant Billingsley would miss all of the 2013 season. But Billingsley elected to try to rehab the elbow, had a couple of platelet-rich plasma injections and started working to regain arm strength. His comeback was pushed back during spring training with a nail injury, but in his first start of the season Wednesday he looked pretty familiar, pitching the Dodgers to a 4-3 victory over the Padres at Petco Park.

SAN DIEGO - After the Dodgers' 9-3 defeat to the San Diego Padres on Tuesday, Matt Kemp spoke at length about his early-season slump - how he wasn't driving in runs, how frustrated he felt, how he knew he would start hitting in the near future and so forth. Suddenly, Kemp appeared to be struck by the absurdity of it all and started to giggle. "I've probably hit into a double play damn near every game," he said, shaking his head. Told he grounded into three in the Dodgers' first seven games, Kemp laughed.

SAN DIEGO - With the Padres playing their home opener Tuesday, the Dodgers will be the first team to hit in Petco Park since it was renovated over the off-season. Long considered one of baseball's most pitcher-friendly parks, Petco Park is not as cavernous as it used to be. The wall that runs from right field to right center was brought in 11 feet. The wall in left-center was also moved in. The parts of right-center and left-center that were 402 feet away from home plate are now 391 and 390 feet away, respectively.

The San Diego Padres play at Petco Park, located at 19 Tony Gwynn Drive. In the park beyond center field, within Tony Gwynn Plaza, the Padres installed a bronze statue of Tony Gwynn. Gwynn owns this town, and not because of his Hall of Fame bust or his eight batting titles. Gwynn owns this town because he never left. "I invented the San Diego discount," he said. That brings us to Adrian Gonzalez, who should own this town. Gonzalez grew up here, on both sides of the border.

Reporting from San Diego — The decision for Tony Gwynn Jr. and the San Diego Padres to part ways was made by the team, not the player. But when Gwynn returns to Petco Park on Friday for the start of the Dodgers' three-game series against the Padres, he said he doesn't know how he'll be received. "I'm expecting the worst," Gwynn said. "I'll have the Dodger uniform on. I don't think the last name on the back really matters at that point. " He shares his name with his father, Tony Gwynn Sr., the most beloved player in the history of the Padres' franchise and a Hall of Famer who accumulated 3,141 hits over a 20-year career.

The Omni San Diego Hotel attached to Petco Park offers savings on a spring stay that includes valet parking and other extras. For those who want to unwind on a weekend getaway, the 511-room hotel has a heated pool and jacuzzi and a stone fireplace -- with no resort fee tacked on to the bill. The deal: The Sun Diego package starts at $281 a night plus tax and includes valet parking, two Sea Breeze cocktails at McCormick & Schmick's and a bottle of sunscreen. When: The offer is good through May 31. Tested: I found availability for a room on Mother's Day weekend (May 10-12)

SAN DIEGO - In the days Adrian Gonzalez called Petco Park his home, he often played on teams that couldn't score. When Gonzalez returned here for the first time in almost two years Tuesday night, his team still couldn't score. Only now he was a visitor, on a big-market team with a significantly larger payroll. Gonzalez had two hits in his San Diego homecoming, but that was of no consolation. The Dodgers fell to the Padres, 2-1, and their elimination number for the second of two National League wild-card spots was down to four.