(Image Source: STL Today)

BY MOLLY HULSEY

Bench-clearing brawls.

Tweets calling each other girls.

The Brewers-Cardinals rivalry is already a heated one, and just before their playoff matchup, Zack Greinke added fuel to the fire, talking some smack about the Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter.

“They think his presence, his attitude out there sometimes is like a phony attitude. And then he yells at people and just stares people down and stuff and most pitchers don’t do that... A lot of guys on our team don’t like Carpenter.”

But who’s really the phony here? Yahoo! Sports says... it might actually be both pitchers.

“It’s almost like Greinke is saying, ‘Shut up and pitch’ -- which isn't really fair to Carpenter. It works for him, or at least Carpenter thinks it does. Just because Greinke goes out there quietly... doesn’t mean that everyone should pitch that way. His way, in a way, is his own shell, his own way of being phony.”

Whether Greinke’s right or not, a blogger for NBC Sports hopes the trash talk keeps coming.

“Strong words about a 36-year-old ace, fresh off the finest pitching performance of his career. Let’s hope, for entertainment purposes, that both sides remain pissed off and talkative throughout the seven-game set.”

So, why all the bad blood? ESPN says... maybe the two teams just don’t mix well.

“At the heart of the issue is a clash of styles. The Brewers are new school... It’s a style a teenager would appreciate. The Cardinals, on the other hand, are old school... They play the game with a style that grandparents like. Put it together and you have oil and water.”

Is a thick skin more important than a hot bat in these playoffs? Baseball Tonight’s Barry Larkin thinks the ability to handle the war of words just might be the key to which team advances.

“I think this whole series is going to be an emotional series. We saw some guys get hit, we saw some banter going back and forth between pitchers and hitters. It’s just going to be about who can control their emotions and play within themselves during the series.”

It won’t take long for Greinke to either make good on his words... or eat them. The ace will take the mound for the first game of the seven game series this Sunday in Milwaukee.