Greinke: No one really likes Chris Carpenter

So much for all of the baseball being played on the field. Milwaukee Brewers starter Zach Greinke, a former Cy Young Award winner with the Royals, offered some candid observations to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Right-hander Zack Greinke, who will start Game 1 for the Brewers on Sunday afternoon at Miller Park, certainly did nothing to quell the bitterness when asked if the clubs genuinely dislike each other.

"Maybe now," he said. "I think no one really likes (Chris) Carpenter. Besides that, I think (the Brewers) respect mostly everyone on their team."

Greinke referred to the Cardinals' ace, whose 1-0 shutout of favored Philadelphia in Game 5 of the National League Division Series propelled wild-card St. Louis into the confrontation of NL Central rivals. That comment drew an immediate and expected response from St. Louis manager Tony La Russa.

"Very disappointed that Greinke would say that," said La Russa. "I don't know him a lot, but I always thought he was a high-character, 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. And 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 and comments. But, like I said at the beginning, if they had Chris Carpenter they would be cheering for him and believing in him and they would not allow somebody that was a teammate to make a crack like that

."