Madison Bumgarner and Yasiel Puig make their hate for another job yet

It was not easy for Madison Bumgarner and Yasiel Puig to continue to hate each other as fiercely as today now that Puig had moved away from the Midwest. The old proximity between the two players allowed them to share a bond of anger built on the stick overthrow and threshing. With Puig in Cincinnati, it was not clear that they would be able to maintain this intensity. But on Sunday, the two men showed that there remained some sparks in their conflictual relationship.

It started at the end of Puig at the beginning of the sixth inning. With no one on board and no one on the outside, Puig pushed a Bumgarner 92 mph fastball into the seats on the left. Knowing what he had just done, the Red decided to take the time to admire this manual work on his longtime foe and threw his baton once he had finished looking at the dinger.

This obviously did not have the same level of passion as it would have been a few years ago. If it was in 2013, the turnaround of Puig's bat would have looked more like that of Bautista and he would have shown more language by rounding the bases. Bumgarner would have tried to fight with Puig on second base. But this kind of energy tends to fade with age in all relationships and things remained relatively civil as Puig arrived home.

Bumgarner, clearly inspired by what Puig had been so kind to do for him, was not going to let his opponent get away with it. He kept his answer for the post-match press conference, as a true gentleman.

It is always a pleasure to see two old souls relight a flame that would have been lost.