San Francisco Giants' Joc Pederson says he was slapped by Cincinnati Reds' Tommy Pham over fantasy football beef

CINCINNATI — San Francisco Giants outfielder Joc Pederson said Cincinnati Reds outfielder Tommy Pham slapped him prior to Friday's series opener over a dispute about their fantasy football league.

While the Giants warmed up in the outfield, Pham confronted Pederson and smacked him in the cheek before the pair was separated.

«It was a surprise,» Pederson told reporters. «There was no real argument. He kind of came up and said, like, I don't know if you remember from last year and I was like fantasy football. He was like, yeah.»

Major League Baseball is investigating, and Pham agreed to be scratched from Cincinnati's lineup shortly before first pitch pending results of the inquiry.

Pederson said after the Reds' 5-1 victory that he was accused of cheating for placing a player on injured reserve and replacing him with a free agent in a fantasty football league. Pederson said the player he put on IR had been ruled out for that week, which made it a legal move. He said Pham had executed essentially the same maneuver with his own team.

«I sent a screenshot of the rules, how it says that if a player's ruled out, you're allowed to put him on the IR and that's all I was doing,» Pederson said. «He literally did the same thing. That was basically all of it.»

He continued by saying that he thought the fantasy player at the center of the disagreement, San Francisco 49ers running back Jeff Wilson, might have been a player Pham had in two different leagues, leading to a possible mixup.

«Maybe that was a confusion,» he added. «In the ESPN league we were in, he was listed as out. It feels very similar to what I did. That was basically all of it. There's not much more to it.»

Pederson said he had no advance notice that Pham might confront