Temper Temper

With the Cincinnati Reds fighting to stay atop of the NL Central (no pun attended) and in the midst of a pennant race against their division foe -- St. Louis Cardinals, a rivalry has been born. Adding fuel to the fire was Reds All-Star second baseman Brandon Phillips who had some strong words to say about the Red Birds and didn't shy away from expressing how he truly felt after his team fell, 7-3. "I'd play against these guys on one leg. We have to beat these guys. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them. They're little bitches, all of them. I really hate the Cardinals." Phillips added, "Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Cubs. Let me make this clear, I hate the Cardinals!"

One day after his comments made headlines, both teams met on the field for the second match of a three-game series at Cincy's Great American Ballpark. For someone who's been in the league long enough and has never had a similar situation like this occur, I can't say I didn't expect Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa to have his boys retaliate with a bean ball or two. Instead, they didn't have to. As Phillips approached the plate to lead off the bottom of the first inning, he stepped into the batters box and did his usual pre-at-bat routine by tapping the heels of both the opposing catcher and the home plate umpire. Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina however, wasn't buying it. When Phillips tried tapping Molina's heels, Molina kicked the bat away and the two began exchanging words and got into each others face.

The benches and bullpens soon cleared as both teams began pushing and shoving. In the middle of it all were both teams skippers, Dusty Baker and Tony LaRussa who have had a history of incidents between one another in the past. Both managers were ejected from the game. The fracas seemed to be just about over with until Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter and Reds hurler Johnny Cueto were pushed to the net behind home plate. Cueto began kicking the back of Carpenter with his cleats, but Cardinals back-up catcher Jason LaRue who played eight seasons with the Reds from '99-'06 encountered the brunt of it, receiving multiple kicks to the head causing lacerations above his lip and resulting in several stitches and a concussion. Despite the dust up, Cueto would eventually pitch 5.1 innings and receive the loss, 8-4.

With another win on Wednesday, the Cardinals completed the first 3-game sweep of the Reds in Cincy since 2005 and now lead the division by a game after entering the series trailing the Reds by two games. As punishments begin to be handed out, one player who's been singled out in the fracas is Reds pitcher Johnny Cueto after doing his best Chun Li impersonation. Cueto kicked his way to a 7-game suspension, as both his manager and Cardinals skipper Tony LaRussa were only issued a 2-game suspension. As for the man of the hour who started the whole thing, Phillips didn't receive any sort of suspension for his derogatory comments (which is a good thing for my fantasy team). Instead he's left looking like a fool as his team lost what may be a pivotal series down the stretch.