The Nationals’ Bryce Harper will serve a three-game suspension for charging the mound when the San Francisco Giants reliever Hunter Strickland hit him with pitch, reduced from the original punishment of a four game ban. Strickland will be suspended for six games.

The incident cleared both team’s benches on Monday, as Strickland’s 98 m.p.h. pitch went a little too inside.

The Nationals won Monday’s game, 3-0.

Strickland was apparently extracting payback for the two home runs that Harper hit off him during the 2014 National League Division Series; Giants manager Bruce Bochy acknowledged it was “a personal thing.”

Nationals manager Dusty Baker said on Tuesday night, “I know [Giants catchers] Bruce Bochy didn’t give the command and order. I could tell the way Buster Posey reacted he had nothing to do with it. In our mind, it was not a team act but a selfish act on his part. It’s more selfish because he probably won’t ever get to come to the plate for there to be any retaliation.”

Harper also spoke to reporters yesterday before the Nationals Tuesday night 6-3, “I was sitting there talking to my parents this morning at breakfast. It’s just crazy that it even happened yesterday. After three years, to do that, I don’t know what was going through his mind or how upset he was the last couple years. If he did have a problem, he could’ve talked to me in BP about it and say: ‘I didn’t like the way you went about it.’ But that’s not human nature, I guess. I don’t know, it’s just part of the game, I guess. It’s just a crazy situation. I can’t believe it happened.”

The Washington Post pointed out, “That Strickland got more games than Harper pleased the Nationals, who were outspoken and adamant that Strickland, whose long-held grudge sparked the conflict, should receive a harsher penalty. But when one considers Strickland’s normal workload — at most, he probably would pitch in three or four of those six games — compared with Harper’s, the relative severity flips. The Giants will lose a reliever for about three innings of work. The Nationals will lose their No. 3 hitter and MVP candidate for about 36 innings, should the suspension stand on appeal.”

Both Harper and Strickland are appealing the decision.