WATCH: Bryce Harper plunking sparks crazy baseball brawl between Nats and Giants – CBSSports.com

Giants reliever Hunter Strickland hit Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper with a pitch on Monday and a pretty nice brawl broke out afterward: 

So let’s sort this out.

First off, surely Harper will be suspended for the charge and the punches, while Strickland himself will get nailed for the pitch and his swings back at Harper. 

Secondly, the most entertaining part for me was Jeff Samardzija — remember, a former college wide receiver — with a stellar shoulder block, only it was accidentally to teammate Mike Morse. That’s two pretty large human beings colliding with a full head of steam. 

OK, so maybe Harper’s helmet toss was just as funny. He looked like 50 Cent throwing out the first pitch in Citi Field. Of course, there’s a chance Harper threw it sideways like that on purpose to distract Strickland so he could have a more clean shot at punching him. That suggests a pretty strong dislike between Harper and Strickland. 

Also, if you didn’t notice the reaction of Giants catcher and team leader Buster Posey, go back and watch him. He doesn’t even react and doesn’t make any attempt to get into Harper. This leads me to believe that he thought it was pretty stupid of Strickland to throw at Harper. 

Why might Strickland have done it? Well, he had previously faced Harper twice and Harper homered both times. Both came in the 2014 NLDS. Is Strickland really still suffering from hurt feelings over two bombs that happened almost three years ago when his team ended up winning the World Series that year? If so, that’s pretty weak stuff. 

We might hear more after the game, though the smart money is on Strickland simply saying that the pitch got away from him. Harper’s post-game comments should be fun, though.