Cardinals: Mike Schildt blames Reds for starting Saturday’s brawl

The Cardinals are sticking by their story that Saturday’s brawl was entirely the fault of the Reds. 

The St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds gave fans the first brawl of 2021 during Saturday’s game. Nicholas Castellanos was at the heart of it all after he got in Jake Woodford’s face at home plate. Yadier Molina got involved and it was a whole mess.

Castellanos was beaned and clearly thought it was on purpose. Thus, the altercation at home when he came around to score. An article in The Athletic following the game summed up how the Cardinals are feeling about the situation.

Cardinals still blaming Reds for the whole brawl

“I was pleased,” Shildt told reporters, as shared in the article. “Our guys came out there. We’re not going to take it. I know Yadi went immediately right at him, got sidetracked by Moose. Woody, to his credit, got up and was like, ‘I’m not going to sit here and be taunted.’ Good for him.”

So much for COVID protocols.

Cardinals manager Mike Shildt believes Castellanos was openly taunting his team. That was not a false assumption.

The whole situation was silly and Castellanos created a whole situation out of nothing. He seemed to believe he was beaned on purpose because of a bat flip he had earlier in the series. The Cardinals, meanwhile, seemed confused as to why he just wouldn’t calm down.

Tensions seemed to ease following the game, but this rivalry should only continue to be heated as the season continues. That is especially true if Castellanos continues to create narratives in his head about him being a target. But hey, motivation comes in plenty of different forms.