CINCINNATI • On a close night hard by the Ohio River, the Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds turned the roots of a pennant race into something bigger, something meaner.
When the Cardinals were through with an 8-4 dismantling of their staggered host at Great American Ball Park, the imprint of a rivalry was as obvious as the red marks on Chris Carpenter's back and the dried blood on Jason LaRue's face.
Trading shoves before the Reds even took a swing, the Cardinals emerged from a seven-minute, first-inning altercation to gain a series win against a team it has now tied for the NL Central lead.
Left fielder Matt Holliday's four hits and three RBIs highlighted a 12-hit attack off Reds starting pitcher Johnny Cueto and four relievers. Cueto (11-3), who lasted 51/3 innings, may face discipline from the commissioner's office for his role in a rumble that ignited when second baseman Brandon Phillips entered the box to begin the home first inning.
The fight trapped pitcher Chris Carpenter against the backstop as Cueto began kicking wildly. Several kicks raked Carpenter's back; at least one caught LaRue squarely in the face, resulting in significant bruising and what manager Tony La Russa called a concussion. Jeff Suppan extricated himself by crawling through teammates' legs. Carpenter later described Cueto's action as "totally unprofessional" and "unbelievable."
The first-inning brawl began with Phillips tapping catcher Yadier Molina on the shin guards after Phillips defended his description Monday of the Cardinals as "little bitches, all of them."
Typically, the tap is a greeting sign.
To the Cardinals, especially Molina, it equated to a slap in the face under the circumstances.
"I was ready to start the game. He touched me. The comment he made yesterday that he's got (no respect for us) over there ... if you've got nothing, why are you touching me?" Molina said. "You're not my friend, so don't touch me."
Reds manager Dusty Baker said, "Brandon tapped Molina like he always does the catcher, and Yadier didn't like it and said ‘I'm not your so-and-so,' and then it was on."
Cardinals third baseman Felipe Lopez said, "You can't say anything about the whole team and then expect to be friends with somebody. If you feel like that, you feel like that. That's OK. It's baseball, man."
The back-and-forth resulted in La Russa and Baker being ejected but no immediate sanctions against players.
Umpiring crew chief Jeff Kellogg issued warnings to both benches against further retaliation.
"One thing led to another and guys were chirping," Baker said. "Some guys said to be quiet and (third-base coach Jose) Oquendo was talking. I told him to be quiet and Tony told me, ‘Don't talk to my coaches.' And I told him a few things. He told me a few things and then I heard something behind my back and then it was on again. I thought we'd calmed it down. It was ugly, not good baseball."
The Cardinals followed with one of their best offensive games this season. Despite only two hits with runners in scoring position, they exploited several misplays and several times advanced runners on outs. They won by scoring at least four runs for the ninth consecutive game and are hitting .322 in the span.
"I think we made a lot of things happen," La Russa said, later adding, "Our club did a terrific job of putting that stuff aside and playing baseball, which is what we do really well."
"It's how the game goes. Things are best when you get a bunch of guys going at the same time," said Holliday, who increased his RBI count to 71.
The win assured the Cardinals of their second road series win since June 24 while bumping them 14 games over .500 (63-49) for the first time this season.
The loss meanwhile assured the Reds (64-50) of their first series loss since the All-Star break and only their second since June 20.
As a result the Cardinals find themselves tied for the NL Central lead with the Reds for the fifth time since June 1.
Jaime Garcia (10-5) lasted just 51/3 innings and walked five but was good enough to earn his first road win since June 22. In a game that overflowed with emotion early, he limited the Reds to two hits, both singles.
"They've got a pretty good team. They were in first place, but we showed we've got good talent and we're going to compete. We took good at-bats. That's what we needed to do," Molina said.
Two teams that haven't been separated by more than three games since May 9 are bound to rub one another the wrong way.
"It's no mystery there was some tension going into the game," said Reds third baseman Scott Rolen. "And it got ugly right at the beginning. I was tired before my first at-bat."
First baseman Albert Pujols twice scored from first base, once on Holliday's sixth-inning double against Cueto and again on Holliday's seventh-inning single that produced two RBIs and allowed Pujols to sprint home on an unnecessary throw.
Molina, who had two hits plus a sacrifice fly and a stolen base, contributed a second-inning home run worth a 2-0 lead before the Reds notched two runs in the third.
Both of Holliday's RBI hits came within three-run rallies for leads of 5-2 and 8-4.
Trever Miller, Kyle McClellan and Ryan Franklin worked the final two scoreless innings. Rookie Fernando Salas allowed two inherited runs from Garcia to score in the sixth inning.
The game left scars, figuratively and literally.
"We didn't come here to fight. We came here to play baseball," Lopez said. "We don't have anything against them. It's not about them. It's one guy."
By expressing himself bluntly and profanely before Monday's series opener, Phillips has added heat to an already tense race.
"Regardless of what happened, we lost today and that sucked," said Phillips, who made the final out for the second straight night. "We're just mad we lost the game, nothing else, regardless of that other stuff."
The Cardinals see it otherwise, as Carpenter railed against Cueto's Bruce Lee routine.
"I don't think anybody was fighting. It just turned into a little scrum. Then it just got out of control real quick," Carpenter said. "I just turned around and I've got Cueto kicking me in the back with his spikes. Like I said, that's super-unprofessional. I don't know where he learned to fight."
The Cardinals may place LaRue on the disabled list and are considering promoting catcher Stephen Hill from Class AA Springfield. The club may also push for discipline against Cueto.
"He got kicked square in the face with spikes," said Carpenter of LaRue. "Come on. Give me a break."
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CORRECTS 15th graf to delete reference to no Cardinals home run.
