To his credit, Cleveland Indians hitter Nick Swisher acted quickly to diffuse a potential controversy involving Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman.
Swisher could've been forgiven for not taking the high road.
The Reds led the Indians 4-2 in the ninth inning of their Memorial Day game, when Chapman entered in an attempt to earn his 13th save of the season.
Chapman struck out Cleveland shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to start the ninth and then faced Swisher.
Chapman's first pitch, clocked at 100 miles per hour, sailed about four feet above Swisher and Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco target and crashed into the backstop.
The second pitch of the at-bat, also clocked at 100 mph, whizzed near much closer to Swisher's head. Swisher took a few steps up the third-base line and was mouthing to Chapman, "Don't do that. Don't do that."
After the game, Swisher dismissed any notion of intent by Chapman.
"I know you guys are trying to stir some stuff up here," MLB.com reported Swisher as saying. "The first one I saw go by, and I thought, 'Wow, that's pretty quick.' And then that second one was a little too close for comfort. Let's be honest, 100 mph at somebody's head? That's not exactly the best thing."
The report went on to detail Reds manager Dusty Baker's response in defense of his closer.
"Is that the first time you've seen Aroldis throw one on the screen?" Baker said. "I'm serious. I just think that maybe everybody overreacted except the umpire (Paul Schrieber). The umpire was really pretty cool about handling the situation. That's not something that we'd like to be known for or he'd like to be known for either."
Replays, however, clearly show Chapman staring at home plate after his first pitch to the backstop. Swisher didn't react, and the second pitch was dangerously closer to Swisher's head.
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