Adam Eaton calls Todd Frazier 'childish' after they exchange words

NEW YORK — New York Mets third baseman Todd Frazier may not have had a lot to say about his heated exchange with Washington Nationals right fielder Adam Eaton following the third inning on Monday night.

But Eaton sure did — and he was pretty darn funny about it, too.

The two exchanged words and had to be separated after Eaton hit into a double play to end the third. The Mets beat the Nationals 5-3 at Citi Field.

The ex-Chicago White Sox teammates have a history of animosity toward one another — although the origins of their mutual displeasure are unclear.

“He’s very childish,” Eaton said, adding he’s surprised the feud is still going on. “I’m walking with my head down, the play’s over, I’m walking away, I hear him a couple of times. I’m a 30-year-old man with two kids, I got a mortgage and everything. He wants to loud talk as he’s running off the field. At the end of the day I got to be a man about it. I tried to stay patient with the childishness. It is what it is. I got to stand up to it eventually.”

Frazier wasn’t nearly as expansive.

“It’s nothing,” Frazier said. “Nothing at all.”

Last season, Frazier was upset about Eaton’s slide that injured Phillip Evans, and apparently let Eaton know about it.

“Gosh, who knows what goes on in that guy’s mind,” Eaton said. “He’s chirping all the way across the infield. He must really like me because he wants to get my attention, it seems like any time we come here to town and he really cares what I think about him, I guess.

“I don’t know what the deal is. I don’t know if he wants to talk to me in person or have a visit or what it is. But like I said, he’s always yelling across the infield at me. He’s made a habit of it, so he’s one of those guys who always says it loud enough so you can hear it but you can’t understand it. So like I said he’s making a habit of it.

“I ignored him a couple of times. I had it to the point where, ‘Hey, I’m not going to say the thing I want to say.’ But you got to be a man at some point and so I turned around, had a few choice words with him. It was funny, I was talking towards him and he really doesn’t want to walk towards me. But as soon as somebody held him back he was like, all of a sudden really impatient trying to get towards me. But like I said, just being Todd Frazier. Just being himself. That’s as basic as I can say.”

The two teams — and players — meet again on Tuesday in Queens.