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Let the fireworks begin.

Oh, excuse me. They already have started.

Brewers' Game 1 starter Zack Greinke made a few critical comments about St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter in an interview session at Miller Park, and Cardinals manager Tony La Russa responded to Greinke's comments.

Greinke was asked what the Brewers have against Carpenter, who got into it with Nyjer Morgan during the teams' last regular-season series in St. Louis.

"I don't know," Greinke said. "They think his presence, his attitude out there sometimes is like a phony attitude. But ... and then he yells at people. He just stares people down and stuff. And most pitchers just don't do that.

"And when guys do, I guess some hitters get mad. Some hitters do it to pitchers. But when you do that some people will get made. There's other pitchers in the league that do it, but I don't know, a lot of guys on our team don't like Carpenter."

When Greinke's comments were relayed to La Russa, the Cardinals manager said: "It's very disappointing that Greinke would say that. I've always thought he was high-character type, a classy guy.

"That's a bad comment to make unless you know Chris Carpenter. Our attitude is we look at ourselves and we grade ourselves. Even if we don't like what's happening on the other side, it's not our business unless somebody crosses the line.

"So I think the Brewers should take care of their players and their comments and not be concerned about other players' comments. If they had Chris Carpenter, they would be cheering for him and believing in him and they would not be allowing somebody who was a teammate to make a crack like that.

"But Greinke's not his teammate, so I'm disappointed. If you knew him, none of that stuff is true. He doesn't give (expletive) .... and he doesn't take it. That's the way it's supposed to be."