SAN DIEGO -- Khalil Greene's frustrating season might have come to a screeching halt on Wednesday. And a season full of more downs than ups can be blamed.

Greene fractured the fifth metacarpal bone in his left hand on Wednesday. He suffered the injury during a 7-3 loss to the Diamondbacks, when he hit or punched a storage chest outside the home dugout during the game's seventh inning.

Following a season where he hit .254 with 27 home runs and 97 RBIs in 105 games, Greene has had wire-to-wire struggles swinging the bat. Through 109 games, he's hitting .213 with 10 home runs and 35 RBIs. Still a force defensively at shortstop, he's stayed in the lineup when healthy, due to that skill. But being relied upon to provide an offensive punch was lost as the season progressed.

"I think Khalil feels as though he's a big part of this team, especially at a premium position," manager Bud Black said. "It's just very unfortunate. We've got a lot of important baseball left to play. As we all know, August and September are critical months for everybody in the game and to miss it, I'm sure it hurts Khalil."

Greene didn't know if his hand was broken as soon as the incident happened. And the incident itself, well, Greene doesn't really want to get into it.

"I'm not going to go into a ton of detail in terms of scenario-wise," Greene said. "I think it lies more within the mind than anything else. I think it's a matter of a culmination of frustrating moments, individually and team-wise."

All the frustration of not being the same player at the plate he's been in the past came to a head and now, Greene could miss six to eight weeks. He doesn't know if that means the end of his season or not, but he doesn't feel good about it.

"It was a pretty impulsive thing, it wasn't as if it was drawn out," Greene said. "It was kind of a quick thing. There wasn't too much thought behind it, obviously. Hindsight, it certainly wasn't something that was a smart move. But it's over and it's done."

The Padres will now look to Luis Rodriguez to fill in at shortstop and Edgar Gonzalez may also see time there as well. Tadahito Iguchi, who has been on the disabled list since June 6 with a separated shoulder, was reinstated on Friday. Iguchi, Gonzalez and Rodriguez will all see time in the middle infield, but no set rotation has been made.

According to Black, general manager Kevin Towers may also look into exploring the possibility of bringing in reinforcements.