Pirates clearly take precautionary measure with Tommy Pham vs Blue Jays, Max Scherzer

Tommy Pham reminded everyone that he's always itching for a fight on Monday night when he confronted Toronto Blue Jays catcher Tyler Heineman in the bottom of the seventh. Pitcher Brendon Little walked Pham to load the bases, Pham flipped his bat, and then, in a blink of an eye, Pham was turning around and heading back to home plate to get in Heineman's face.

"He didn't say a word to me. I didn't say a word to him. He just looked like he wanted to have a fight," Heineman said. "I asked the umpire on the 2-0 pitch, 'You got that just off? It was pretty close right there.' He looked at me and didn't say a word, then he bat flipped and looked straight at me. I just put up my arms and he walked towards me. I don’t really know."

There are two sides to every story and all that, but any Pirates fan (anyone who's ever seen Pham play, really) has little reason to cast doubt on Heineman's perspective.

Either the Pirates are sending Pham a message or trying to avoid a potential dustup — maybe both — because they left him out of the lineup for their second game against Toronto. Pham has been the Pirates' hottest hitter for nearly two months.

Pirates leave Tommy Pham of out lineup vs. Blue Jays after benches-clearing incident in opener

Max Scherzer is on the mound for the Blue Jays on Tuesday evening. He doesn't have a history of intentionally throwing at guys as retribution for his team, but we all know that Pham has a hairpin trigger and Scherzer can also be short-tempered. If he were to throw a ball inside even a little too close for Pham's liking, we could have fireworks once again.

While the Pirates shouldn't have to do the baseball equivalent of putting a 37-year-old man in timeout, it could be for the best.

Unfortunately, Pham has a .301 average and .839 OPS over his last 30 games. He's cooled off significantly more recently, but every other Pirate except Bryan Reynolds' numbers pale in comparison over that same span.

Whether or not Monday's incident was completely the result of Pham's instigation, it's pretty clear that these teams have no beef they should need to revisit on Tuesday night. Unless Pham comes in to pinch-hit, we shouldn't expect any more fireworks.