When Cole Hamels admitted throwing at Bryce Harper, he crossed a line.

That's why Hamels got a five-game suspension.

When Mike Rizzo ... well here's what the Nationals' general manager did (via The Washington Times):

Rizzo ripped Hamels' actions and comments to The Washington Post on Monday.

"I've never seen a more classless, gutless, chicken (expletive) act in my 30 years in baseball," Rizzo said. "Cole Hamels says he's old school? He's the polar opposite of old school. He's fake tough. He thinks he's going to intimidate us after hitting our 19-year-old rookie who's eight games into the big leagues? He doesn't know who he's dealing with.

"He thinks he's sending a message to us of being a tough guy. He's sending the polar opposite message. He says he's being honest. Well, I'm being honest. It was a gutless, chicken (expletive) act. That was a fake tough act. No one has ever accused Cole Hamels of being old school."

Hamels was suspended five games and was also fined as Rizzo was fined for the second straight year. Rizzo was fined and suspended one game in 2011 after an altercation with umpires following a game at Citi Field in New York.

Rizzo's been fined an undisclosed amount of money, but the amount probably isn't anything he can't afford. Hamels, in addition to his five-game suspension, was also fined but it probably wasn't more than $10,000. So you can imagine how much Rizzo might have been fined.

Why was Rizzo fined at all? No, probably not for saying gutless. Or classless. Or even chickenshit. No, what probably got Rizzo fined was He doesn't know who he's dealing with. That's got the vague hint of a threat, and escalation, and (egads) more violence. To which Major League Baseball must make some response, however tepid.