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By Ben Watanabe
Contributing Sports Writer
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Sal Stewart was willing to believe once was a mistake, but not twice.
After the second straight high-and-inside pitch hit him, the Cincinnati Reds first baseman made his displeasure with Chicago White Sox pitcher Davis Martin known on Thursday. The benches cleared, words were exchanged, and the Reds ultimately came out with a 9-8 win.
It was a rare display of spunk by a Reds team that is listing toward the finish of a mediocre season.
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Stewart had hit a home run in the first inning off Martin, so when the right-hander fired a pitch to the backstop on Stewart's subsequent plate appearance, suspicions were raised. When a second pitch nicked the brim of Stewart's helmet, the Reds weren't having Martin's insistence that it was an accident.
Martin was promptly ejected, and Reds manager Terry Francona didn't mince words afterward.
"That was extremely blatant," Francona said, as seen in a video posted to X by Reds Daily. "You can't throw two balls ... head high. You could kill somebody. I thought that was terrible."
This has been an agonizing season for the Reds. Although they took two out of three from Chicago, they entered Friday in a 2-6 slump and are not much of a factor in the NL Wild Card race. Unlike last season, when strong pitching earned them a wild card berth, they have the seventh-worst team ERA and fourth-worst WHIP in all of MLB.
The last thing Stewart and the Reds want in a season like this is for an opponent to add injury to insult. Less than two months remain in the season. The Reds' priority might be merely making it out in one piece.
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