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There was little argument over which series was most eagerly anticipated last week.\u00c2\u00a0 The St. Louis Cardinals were heading to Cincinnati to take on the Reds in a three-game series with the two teams fighting it out at the top of the National League Central division.<\/p>\n
Division battles always capture the imagination, even when the Wild Card can make finishing first or second an arbitrary distinction, but this Cardinals-Reds rivalry has a special quality to it.\u00c2\u00a0 While the Cards have been a contending team regularly over the last fifteen years, the Reds haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t made it to the postseason since they were swept 4-0 by the Atlanta Braves in the 1995 NLCS.\u00c2\u00a0 Now Cincinnati is back in the playoff hunt, this new old rivalry has been reborn.<\/p>\n
There was a real sense of excitement as the opener approached on Monday night, both from fans of the respective teams and neutrals looking on.\u00c2\u00a0 The series undoubtedly lived up to expectations.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n
It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the most crisply played set of baseball games you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re likely to see, but what it lacked in finesse it made up for in ferocity.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The tension was palpable, all concerned sensing that these were not just three more games on the schedule.\u00c2\u00a0 Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter showed that in the first game when he gave teammate Brendan Ryan a verbal dressing down<\/a> for failing to be ready for the bottom of the first inning.\u00c2\u00a0 It turned out that the bottom of the first frame would be a flashpoint in the second game as well.<\/p>\n Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips had ratcheted up the tension prior to the series opener by stating \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hate the Cardinals. All they do is [complain] and moan about everything, all of them\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0 This wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the first time one of the newly-competitive Reds had dished out a few verbals in a rival\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s direction this season.\u00c2\u00a0 Joey Votto caused a minor stir at the All-Star break by stating \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don’t like the Cubs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and claiming that he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t congratulate Marlon Byrd, his National League All-Star teammate, for a great defensive play because \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I’m not going to pat anybody with a Cubs uniform on the back\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Votto later claimed he was joking<\/a> and frankly the comments from both players had a desperate edge to them, like the little kid in the playground shouting at the big boys to try and get a rise out of them.<\/p>\n Well, it worked.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing how grown men can be fabulously offended by a few deliberately provocative, but really fairly tame, words.\u00c2\u00a0 Phillips used his mouth to pour petrol on the series and then used his bat to set the place ablaze, giving Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfriendly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tap on the shin guard as he walked to the plate to lead off the bottom of the first inning of the second game.<\/p>\n