After the Cardinals’ Matt Holliday wiped out Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro with a hard slide in Monday night’s San Francisco win, the Giants were emphatic in saying they thought Holliday was out of line.
Holliday slid all the way across second base and took Scutaro down in a near tackle when trying to break up a double-play. While Holliday said after the game that he didn’t mean any harm, the Giants were upset and called the slide illegal. Scutaro had to leave the game with a hip injury, although he did get some revenge with a timely hit — through Holliday’s legs — before leaving.
Going into Wednesday night’s Game 3, the question is whether the Giants will take their gripes onto the field and give the Cardinals some payback for roughing up their second baseman.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy denied any retaliation Tuesday, saying the team hopes to have Scutaro back and will move on from the Game 2 incident, according to Andrew Baggarly of Comcast Sportsnet.
But when Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain was asked about payback — which would most likely come from a well-placed pitch — he gave an answer that was sure to leave the door open for those who would like to see some retaliation.
Cain said he won’t be timid about throwing inside to Holliday, but only as part of plan to get him out. “If one gets away, one gets away.”
— Andrew Baggarly (@CSNBaggs) October 16, 2012
While Cain appears to be echoing what Bochy said, his admitting ahead of time that he may get wild is going to raise some eyebrows. Cain, who threw a perfect game earlier this year, can generally keep the ball over the plate — he walked just 51 batters this year.
And Cain hinting about an intentional beaning could also cause problems for the Giants if a pitch did get away, as the umpires would then have reason to toss Cain from the game.
