stl sports

Johnny Cueto is an asshole.

I understand the animosity towards Brandon Phillips. He spouted off, said some idiotic things. He followed it up by acting like your little brother who always has to have to last word, who pokes you continuously to see how much he can irritate you. He doesn’t do any real harm himself, but will continue to push things to their breaking point.

That’s Brandon Phillips.

Cueto, however, is a different sort.

Kicking people in the face when you have metal spikes on is…well, I think Carpenter put it best.

I don’t think anybody was fighting. It just turned into a little scrum. Then it just got out of control real quick. I just turned around and I’ve got Cueto kicking me in the back with his spikes. Like I said, that’s super-unprofessional. I don’t know where he learned to fight. [LaRue] got kicked square in the face with spikes. Come on. Give me a break.

Cardinals beat reporter Joe Strauss made a good point yesterday on twitter, pointing out if Yadier had been ejected, LaRue may not have been able to come in. Who knows, maybe we would have seen Jason Motte catch a few behind home plate.

The first official casualty of all (maybe) this is Jeff Suppan, who was placed on the DL. Cardinals AA catcher Steven Hill was brought up, presumably to relieve Molina today if necessary. Whether Suppan’s move was related to fight is unknown right now, but he was crawling out of the middle of the pile yesterday.

The second Cardinal to move to the DL may very likely be LaRue. Carpenter said he had marks on his face, and was checking his mouth during the game. LaRue apparently had a mild concussion as well.

Which came from Cueto. Look Johnny, it sucks when you are pinned against the backstop. Dusty Baker said you were trapped like a “rat in the corner.” I’d say that’s about right. You weren’t the only person pinned up though, but you were the only person kicking.

The worst part was Cueto’s post-game reaction, where he was smiling and laughing when a reporter asked about LaRue. I know he doesn’t speak English, but I’m guessing in the three years he been in the league he picked up a little English. Maybe he was suffering from Sammy Sosa syndrome.

Either way, the Cardinals pulled in the lead for the NL Central and that’s what matters right now. And now they have a chance to put a heart-breaking finishing move on the Reds today.