If only the 21,506 paying customers at PNC Park had shown up for batting practice, they would have caught a far more compelling battle than the St. Louis Cardinals' 8-3 knockout of the Pirates last night.

Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Manager Lloyd McClendon takes starting pitcher Kip Wells out of the game against the Cardinals in the first inning last night. Click photo for larger image. TODAY Game: Cardinals (Matt Morris 13-5, 3.80) at Pirates (Dave Williams 10-9, 4.06), 7:05 p.m. TV/Radio: None/KDKA-AM (1020) and Pirates Radio Network. Related coverage Pirates Notebook: Duke likely to miss a start Columnist Gene Collier: No Nunez for Pirates is good Nunez for St. Louis

The teams engaged in a extraordinarily rare pregame fight, one in which Pirates hitting coach Gerald Perry punched Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan and most of the participants on both sides pushed, shoved and tugged shirts for five electric minutes in a tight area behind the batting cage.

It greatly overshadowed a lopsided contest in which Pirates starter Kip Wells failed to escape the first inning, even if few were willing to discuss it afterward.

"I'll talk about the game," Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon said.

"No comment," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said.

Perry and Duncan declined to speak, too.

At 5:20 p.m, almost two hours before the first pitch, the Cardinals took the field for batting practice just as the Pirates were ending theirs.

According to witnesses, Duncan spotted Pirates reliever Rick White, who pitched for St. Louis in 2002, and asked him if a high-and-tight pitch he whizzed by the Cardinals' Hector Luna Tuesday night was deliberate. Luna's hard slide into Jose Castillo the previous night cost the Pirates their second baseman for the rest of the season, and the Cardinals' perception, as expressed later by La Russa, was that White was sending a message.

Before White could respond, McClendon barked at Duncan to stop talking to his players. When Duncan became animated in response, McClendon challenged him.

"Duncan asked me a question he probably shouldn't have," White said. "If Tony had a question to ask, Tony should have come up and asked it. I would have talked to him. Instead, he went through Duncan. Skip didn't like it too much, and whatever happened happened."

Perry quickly thrust himself between the two, and Duncan made an aggressive gesture with his arm. Perry responded with a punch that, according to footage shot by FSN Pittsburgh cameras, struck Duncan squarely on the chin.

Perry is 44, Duncan 59.

"Really, it was just some pushing and shoving," McClendon said in brief remarks before the game. "It's just two competitive clubs. Both clubs want to win. Things probably got a little out of hand."

Players and coaches from both sides quickly gathered, with only a few tussling, and they separated after two minutes.

Then they started anew and went at it for another two minutes, this time with greater snarl. Duncan appeared determined to get to McClendon and needed to be restrained by fellow coaches. Cardinals reliever Ray King also seemed livid as teammates dragged him away from the pack, but the target of his ire was unclear.

Four uniformed city police officers approached the group, but they never got involved. Only a handful of season-ticket holders, team employees and media were in PNC Park's seating bowl at the time.

Afterward, McClendon and La Russa met behind the cage and spoke calmly for 15 minutes while coaches dispatched players to their dugouts.

The umpiring crew entered the building at 5:48 p.m., just after all of the Pirates were back in the clubhouse. Once informed of the incident, crew chief Jerry Crawford summoned McClendon and La Russa to the umpires' room and warned them against any carryover into the game.

"There will be no problems," McClendon said after the meeting. "There will be peace."

McClendon said part of his talk with La Russa yesterday was about matters related to Castillo, White and Luna.

"Tony and I got a lot of things cleared up," he said.

McClendon and La Russa have a history of clashes. The most notable came last season at PNC Park, when each was suspended two games for a shouting match on the field.

About an hour before batting practice, McClendon reiterated he never has asked a pitcher to throw at a hitter and denied there was any animosity or rivalry between the teams or managers.

"To have a rivalry, you've got to win your share of games," he said. "They've pretty much dominated us."

The Cardinals have taken 16 of the past 19 meetings, including an easy one last night.

Wells had shown signs of resuscitating his season by allowing one run in his previous two starts, but he dropped to 7-13 after recording only two outs. The Cardinals scored five times on six singles, two walks and an error.

"Just a horrible outing," McClendon said. "After the last two outings, I'm thinking this guy is on his way, that he's going to finish out his year strong. To come out with this type of performance was just ... mind-boggling."

Conversely, St. Louis' Chris Carpenter added to his Cy Young Award credentials by going eight solid innings to improve to 18-4 and keep his earned run average at 2.34. Despite clearly not having his best command, he allowed three runs on four hits.

Three of those hits were by Rob Mackowiak, who ended up a home run shy of the cycle.

The game went without incident, with no especially hard slides and no batters being hit by pitches. White faced Luna again but walked him on four outside balls in the eighth.

"It went just the way I thought it would go," McClendon said. "It was a clean game."