As if booing Ryan Braun from the rooftops and hitting Anthony Rizzo and Javy Báez with pitches weren’t enough.
Leave it to the Cubs and Brewers push tempers to the limits of baseball’s new policy on brawls — and the limits of their own restraint — on the second day of the season.
Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes buzzing of inside fastballs in the first inning, including hitting Báez on the arm, started raising the temperature between the teams on an 87-degree afternoon, and by the end of the third inning, Willson Contreras had enough.
The Cubs’ DH for the day — who already showed anger as a brushback in the first — barked at Burnes on the way back to the dugout after an inning-ending strikeout, sparking actions from both chirping benches.