Reds’ Pham slaps Giants’ Pederson after fantasy football dispute

“We were in a fantasy league together,” Pederson said. “I put a player on the injured reserve when they were listed as out and added another player. Then there was text message in the group saying I was cheating because I was stashing players on the bench. I looked up the rule and sent a screen shot of the rules that say when a player is out, you’re allowed to put them on the IR. That’s what I was doing. It just so happened he had a player, (running back) Jeff Wilson, who was out, and he had him on the IR. I said you have the same thing on your bench. He was in two leagues. In one of them, he was on the IR, and one of them, he wasn’t. Maybe that was the confusion. In the ESPN league we were in, he was listed as out, so it feels very similar to what I did. There’s not much more to it.”

Pham received a three-game suspension and an undisclosed fine Saturday for the altercation. It was retroactive to Friday, so he didn’t play Saturday and won’t play Sunday.

Pederson was surprised to be confronted by Pham before the game. They had not talked since the incident.

“He kind of came up and said, ‘You remember from last year?’” Pederson said.

“Fantasy football?” Pederson asked.

Then Pham slapped him. Pederson decided to not to respond, though other players were around, and players from both teams ran to the area, according to video shared by MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon.

“I don’t think violence is the answer,” Pederson said. “I left the situation. It was an unfortunate situation over a fantasy football rule.”

The Giants asked the Reds to remove Pham from the lineup before the game, according to reports, and the Reds complied.

Asked about the incident after the game, Reds manager David Bell said, “I’m not going to speak about that.”