Pham slapped Pederson pregame over fantasy football beef
It got heated between Cincinnati Reds outfielder Tommy Pham and San Francisco Giants outfielder Joc Pederson on Friday.
Pham slapped Pederson during a pregame confrontation at Great American Ball Park. The altercation was caused by a fantasy football disagreement, Pederson said following the Giants' 5-1 loss on Friday.
Joc shares details of what happened in his fantasy football league that started his altercation with Tommy Pham today pic.twitter.com/d9NBTwPVoG
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 28, 2022
Their fantasy football league also includes players from other clubs, according to The Athletic's C. Trent Rosecrans and Andrew Baggarly.
Players from both teams ran out to left field and broke up the altercation before anything else happened, per Mark Sheldon of MLB.com.
This is all I could see. pic.twitter.com/wUPN4VSvjt
— Mark Sheldon (@m_sheldon) May 27, 2022
Shortly after the incident, the Reds scratched Pham from their starting lineup, and he wasn't on the team's bench when the game began following a rain delay. The Reds announced that he agreed not to play Friday while MLB investigates the incident.
Pederson remained in the Giants' lineup, though manager Gabe Kapler said his team was also looking into what happened.
"We're investigating and learning as much as we can about the incident," Kapler said pregame, per Rosecrans and Baggarly. "I don't have much more for you than that right now. I sense that we'll have a clearer understanding after the game."
Pham, 34, owns a .233/.335/.373 slash line across 42 games this season, his first in Cincinnati.
Pederson, also in his first year with the Giants, sports a .260/.331/.606 line with 11 homers and 24 RBIs.