A livid Nolan Arenado tossed the catcher aside to spark a bench-clearing scuffle with the Mets

We have our first (almost) BASEBRAWL of the season, folks.

Tensions had been brewing for much of this three-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets amid a flurry of hit by pitches. And on Wednesday, those tensions finally boiled over.

The Mets have complained about their hit by pitch rate this season, which leads the league with 19 hit batsmen — almost twice that of the next closest team. And on Tuesday night, Pete Alonso was hit on the helmet with a pitch for the second time this season, sparking pitcher Chris Bassitt to call out MLB over the baseballs.

Now, come Wednesday’s finale, the Cardinals were probably expecting retaliation from the Mets. But the game generally went smoothly until J.D. Davis was hit on the foot by a pitch and had to leave the game in the eighth inning.

While it’s hard to imagine anyone intentionally hitting a batter on a 3-2 pitch, that 96 mph fastball from Genesis Cabrera had to hurt. So, the Cardinals went into the bottom half of the inning on edge for that possible retribution (because, baseball’s lame unwritten rules and whatnot). Nolan Arenado led off the inning, and as an MLB All-Star, he was an obvious candidate to throw at.

There was just one problem: Mets pitcher Yoan Lopez didn’t really throw at Arenado.

The first pitch of the inning was slightly up and in, but it wasn’t going to hit Arenado even if he didn’t move out of the way.

Arenado didn’t care. He started shouting at Lopez and the entire situation escalated when catcher Tomas Nido — trying to calm Arenado down — got tossed aside. You can see that Pete Alonso was wrestled to the ground during the bench-clearing incident too.

Yeah, Arenado wasn’t happy at all. The Cardinals said after the game that they took exception to the pitch — well, duh.

Arenado had similar remarks.

The main dust-up seemed to be between Alonso and Cardinals coach Stubby Clapp. Otherwise, it was mostly pushing, shouting and holding each other back.

Arenado was ejected for his role in the altercation, and the Cardinals went on to win, 10-5.

Still, baseball fans had plenty of thoughts about the heated scene in St. Louis.

Rough look all the way around.