Reds-Cardinals baseball’s best rivalry
Step aside, Yankees-Red Sox and Giants-Dodgers, there is a new most-heated rivalry in baseball. The Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals are no longer just NL Central baseball rivals: They are officially blood enemies.
In closing out the Reds' 9-7 victory over the Cardinals on Sunday — completing Cincinnati's first three-game sweep over St. Louis since 2007 — Francisco Cordero hit Albert Pujols with an 0-2 fastball that rode a little far in. It was good purpose baseball pitch; and as Cordero said after the game, he wasn't trying to put Pujols on base, not since he represented the tying run
The Cardinals are second in the NL baseball in hit batters, and while they ranked 13th last season, they're usually in the top half of the league: 13th, 8th, 8th, 3rd, 2nd, 9th, 6th, 7th, 5th and 2nd, going back to 2001.
This new rivalry is turning out to be the best in baseball. Sure, Jason Varitek and Alex Rodriguez aren't going to dinner together, but the Yankees-Red Sox baseball rivalry has cooled down from its 2003-05 peak. Dodgers and Giants haven't been in a serious pennant race against each other since 2004.