Tempers flared during the Cardinals’ win over the Reds on Sunday, particularly on the Cincinnati side of the field. Reds manager Bryan Price was ejected in the eighth inning for arguing that a player was hit by a pitch, but his blood pressure may have started going up earlier in the game thanks to a Jason Heyward slide into third base.
With the Cardinals leading 2-1 in the top of the fifth, Heyward ripped a triple down the right field line. As you can see in the video here, he started his slide a bit late. Price felt that was a dirty play from Heyward.
“Something happened at third base with Heyward. I thought that was a bad slide there,” Price told reporters after the game, via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I thought that was a dirty slide and I didn’t like that at all. He’s not a dirty player, but I just thought it was a bad slide and a dirty slide. It could have really affected (Todd) Frazier and I’m not happy about that nor are any of our players. Hopefully we’ll be able to use it as fuel in this series to find ways to win games like (this).”
The play certainly didn’t look malicious. Heyward was going hard into third, and he probably realized late that the play would be close and he needed to slide.
After he was tagged out, Heyward asked Frazier several times if he was OK.
“I was trying to get to the base quick, that’s all,” Heyward said. “I wasn’t sure how close and if there was going to be a play at the plate or not. I just slid hard. I looked to Frazier and asked him, ‘You good? You good?’ I wasn’t trying to do anything dirty or take anyone out. It wasn’t a situation that called for that. That’s all.”
Price was later ejected with the game tied 5-5 when he argued with home plate umpire Kerwin Danley that Jon Jay was not hit by a pitch after Jay was awarded first. Crew chief Joe West said Price was asked several times if he wanted to challenge but declined. The Cardinals went on to win 7-5 in extra innings.
Something must have been in the air during baseball’s first full weekend of action. Between Jose Bautista and Darren O’Day getting into it again, Yordano Ventura beefing with Mike Trout and Price taking exception to Heyward’s slide, there was plenty of frustration to go around.
