This weekend I went to San Francisco to see the Giants play.  I saw the games on Saturday and Sunday where the Giants had a lot of big hits is scoring six and seven runs.  Monday’s game, their biggest hit was relief pitcher Hunter Strickland drilling Washington’s Bryce Harper with a fastball in the right hip.  Both benches emptied and Harper and Strickland both landed a good punch on the other.

Strickland claimed the pitch got away.  Any one who follows the Giants doubts that.  Strickland gave up two monumental home runs in the 2014 National League Division Series to Harper.  Harper bat flipped the first one, an upper deck shot in Washington in game one, and stood their admiring the one in San Francisco as it landed in the cove in game four.  San Francisco won the series and took the World Series, so you’d think maybe it would be forgotten.  While the Giants and Nationals had played 12 regular season games since that second home run, Strickland had yet to face Harper.  He saw his opportunity with two out and the bases empty in the eighth inning of Monday’s game.  When Harper charged the mound, normally you’d expect the catcher to intervene and protect his pitcher.  The Giants Buster Posey didn’t.  Maybe because he thought Strickland was wrong and maybe because as the Giants best player with a history of injuries he wanted to stay as far away from a fight as possible.

Strickland has given up some big bombs in his Giants career.  When he came up, I thought he would eventually be the closer, but his hard stuff is usually fairly straight and he hasn’t developed like I thought he would.  Strickland is obviously frustrated and came to a head yesterday.

Today on Idaho Sports Talk we’ll discuss should Strickland have hit Harper, should Posey have joined the fray, why Madison Bumgarner turned and headed to the clubhouse, and maybe why in the end this incident could be good for the Giants.