After hitting a walk-off single, Chicago Cubs shortstop Javier Baez taunted Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Amir Garrett, following which Major League Baseball fined Baez an undisclosed amount of money, according to US media reports.

The heated incident took place between the National League Central rivals on Monday night at Wrigley Field.

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Even before the pitch, the two could be seen jawing at each other and given the history, the tensions escalated quickly. The bad blood between the two goes way beyond the recent incident. It started in 2017 when Baez hit a grand slam against Garrett. 

However, it didn’t stop there. After several other episodes, another bust-up unravelled between the two earlier this season. Garrett was suspended for five games for celebrating, but Bàez was not for charging onto the field.

But on Wednesday, Baez wasn’t suspended for his actions, which made many question the league’s decision. 

After the completion of the game, Garrett said Bàez should thank him. “He should thank me, because I didn’t react because we’d have both lost money and got fined and got suspended and hurt our teammates. I wasn’t gonna react,” Garrett said, according to MLB.com. 

Earlier, following the May incident with Garrett, Baetz had said, “He’s (Garrett) got a style. We all get that. But I’m just not going let him or anyone disrespect my teammates or my team. It was not a big situation, you know? I’m going to try to stay professional with this, but … it doesn’t matter who does it in the game—if someone else does it again, we’ll go out there again.”

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The Reds were seven games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central on Wednesday. The Cubs are in fourth place, 9.5 games out, and are prepared to part ways with their championship core, which could mean Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, and Anthony Rizzo are gone before Friday’s trade deadline.

Cincinnati and Chicago will play their series finale Thursday. After that, they will face off six more times before the end of the season, with each team hosting a three-game set.