By Mark Sheldon

*According to MLB.com colleague Jordan Bastian Wednesday night, Indians starter Derek Lowe went on an expletive-filled tirade against Reds manager Dusty Baker after the Reds 5–3 win over Cleveland.

In the top of the fifth inning, Reds starter Mat Latos went inside on Lowe with a 96 mph fastball and Lowe pointed at the Reds dugout. In the bottom of the fifth, Lowe hit Brandon Phillips with a pitch. There was question about whether the benches were warned, but it wasn’t clear.

“Not that I saw. I didn’t see it. I’m paying attention and I didn’t see a warning,” Baker said.

Lowe was asked by Cleveland’s writers if there was bad blood with the Reds. Lowe said Baker waved a finger at him when he pointed towards the dugout.

“Dusty will deny it. It has everything to do with him,” Lowe said. “You can go ask him. He’ll deny it like he has no idea. They’ve been trying to do this [stuff] for years. I’d always come up with men on base. To say it didn’t come from Dusty, Mat Latos was with the San Diego Padres the last four years. He has no idea what’s going on. Again, you can ask him and he’ll say he doesn’t know [anything] about it like he always does. This goes back to my last year with the Dodgers [in 2008]. He made up some [bogus] story. A lot of people got involved. People almost got fired over it. You can go ask him right now and he’ll say he has no idea what you’re talking about. But just watch the game. Mat Latos has nothing to do with anything that has gone on. How would he know? Why in the [world] would you throw a 96 mph fastball, first pitch, inside to a pitcher? Ask him.

Q: Guys almost got fired?

“There was a lot of people involved,” Lowe replied. “I mean, by no means am I going to sit here and get into it.”

Q: Was it ever made public?

“No, but a lot of people knew about it,” Lowe said. “I have zero respect for the guy — not that it matters. I imagine he’d say the same about me. But the [stuff] that was being said and the denials that he ended up ultimately doing was pretty sad. I’ll just leave it at that.

*I did not have this information before going into the Reds clubhouse for postgame interviews. We’ll have to learn Baker’s side of the story on Thursday morning.