Posted on ESPN.com By ESPN Staff
There is widespread agreement on one topic the day after a bench-clearing brawl that led to a six-game suspension for Giants reliever Hunter Strickland and a four-game ban for Washington slugger Bryce Harper.
Whatever beef might exist is about a long-held grudge by Strickland three years after Harper homered off him twice in the playoffs and not between the teams as a whole.
San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy called the fastball that Strickland threw at Harper in the eighth inning Monday “a personal thing” and said he talked to his reliever privately about his actions.
Washington manager Dusty Baker said there is no need for the Nationals to retaliate against the Giants because he believes Strickland was acting on his own.
“I know Bruce Bochy didn’t give the command and order,” Baker said before Tuesday night’s game. “I could tell the way Buster Posey reacted he had nothing to do with it. In our mind, it was not a team act but a selfish act on his part. It’s more selfish because he probably won’t ever get to come to the plate for there to be any retaliation.”
Strickland hit Harper in the hip with a pitch in the eighth inning and the Washington slugger charged the mound, wildly firing his helmet before trading punches to the head with Strickland during the Nationals’ 3-0 win Monday at San Francisco.
MLB Chief Baseball Officer Joe Torre’s explanation of the disciplinary decisions said Strickland intentionally hit “Harper with a pitch, inciting the bench-clearing incident and fighting” while Harper’s suspension came “for charging the mound, throwing his helmet and fighting.”
“You can’t really worry about what MLB is going to do because you don’t really know,” Harper said. “Whatever they say goes and I’m just going to worry about the four games I got and see what I can do.”
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