Suspension Looming?

Monday's "hot" baseball story was the brawl that broke out in the Nationals-Giants game after San Francisco reliever Hunter Strickland hit Bruce Harper with a pitch. The Nats star then charged the mound, with punches being thrown and teammates charging the field before the sides were separated. With Monday being a national holiday, the MLB offices were closed. But Tuesday, we can expect a ruling to come down regarding suspensions.
The bitterness between Harper and Strickland apparently reaches back to 2014, when Bryce belted a pair of homers off the Giants reliever. They had not faced each other since. Wait a second: does lighting up a pitcher automatically lead to hitting a batter in retaliation -- nearly three years later? I don't think so. A brush back? Perhaps. But so much time elapsed that the incident is probably going to draw an angry reaction from the Commissioner.

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