Courtesy of the St. Louis Cardinals official website

CHICAGO -- David Riske quickly endeared himself to the White Sox faithful and his new teammates during the South Siders' 20-6 obliteration of the Cardinals on Tuesday night. And no, Riske didn't swing a bat in his team's 24-hit explosion.
The right-handed reliever, acquired from Boston in a trade announced on Thursday, was ejected in the seventh inning when he hit Chris Duncan with a pitch after both benches were warned in the previous half-inning by home-plate umpire Mike Everitt. The warning came after St. Louis reliever Sidney Ponson hit Brian Anderson and Pablo Ozuna on consecutive at-bats with the bases loaded.

Ponson hit Anderson in the middle of the back with the first pitch of his at-bat and drilled Ozuna in the left shoulder after getting ahead with two quick strikes. Judging by Tony La Russa's angry reaction in the St. Louis dugout after the second pitch, not to mention his pointed conversation with Ponson on the mound after he nailed Ozuna, Ponson certainly was acting on his own -- if he was acting at all.

It was a point White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen stressed during his postgame comments, the same sort of strong benefit of the doubt he gave to Texas manager Buck Showalter on Wednesday night, when Vicente Padilla hit catcher A.J. Pierzynski twice with a pitch.

"One of my kids is in the back of the room right now, but I swear on my three kids that Tony had nothing to do with that," said Guillen. "He knows I will pick my spot.

"I played for him. I asked him questions as a coach, and I asked him a bunch of questions as a manager. I grew up in that school, and I know Tony had nothing to do with this. He and [St. Louis pitching coach] Dave Duncan had nothing to do with this."

For the record, Ponson also denied any intent with either pitch. The situation was stacked against the burly right-hander, as he allowed four hits to open the sixth. La Russa understood how the sixth inning looked, but pointed to the location problems faced by his pitchers all night long, adding that "it's kind of a wonder only two guys got hit."

Anderson reacted with a bit of discontent after taking one for the team and earning one of the tougher possible RBIs. But the rookie center fielder explained after the game how his anger was not directed at the Cardinals hurler.

"I was upset because it hurt," said Anderson with a smile. "I'm batting a buck-70-something. Nobody is going to bean anyone with the bases loaded."

"I've gotten beaten like that in one inning, two innings and never threw at somebody on purpose," added Ponson, who was demoted to the bullpen prior to this series. "I'm not going to put my teammates in jeopardy to get hurt. It looked like it was, but it wasn't. It was never my intention."

There appeared to be even less doubt as to Riske's intent in the seventh. Aaron Miles doubled to open the inning, and Riske retired the next two hitters. He narrowly missed Duncan, the son of Cardinals' pitching coach Dave Duncan, with two pitches inside, before drilling Duncan in the back side.

Both Riske and manager Ozzie Guillen were immediately ejected by Everitt, marking Guillen's seventh career early dismissal. Guillen took umbrage in the sixth with Everitt's decision to warn both benches, once again before the White Sox could retaliate.

Riske went with the same company line as Ponson. He explained the pitch in question was a fastball designed to go a little bit away from the hitter that simply missed its location.

"I want to go in there and get my work in and throw my pitches and get each hitter out," Riske said. "Getting ejected [during] my first game in a White Sox uniform at home, that's kind of tough. That was the tough part."

"When Duncan got hit for them, he handled it great," White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko added of the situation. "He just took it and went to first and didn't say a word. That's the way you should do it. That's it, that's the way baseball's played. Luckily all the players knew what was going on out there."

Guillen expects some sort of suspension to come for both himself and his reliever, judging by the five-game suspension handed down to Randy Johnson and the one-game suspension for Joe Torre after Johnson pitched inside in a perceived retaliatory situation against Cleveland last week. Riske was suspended four games last year for the same sort of situation as part of the Indians.

But Guillen couldn't help but be proud of his team and his pitcher. It was one week ago when Guillen's dugout tirade was caught on a Texas television broadcast, after rookie Sean Tracey did not do what was called for after Pierzynski took two in the right arm.

Apparently, Riske paid attention to Guillen's diatribe about the White Sox sticking together and fighting for each other.

"Riske's been in the league long enough to know his role out there and to know what he needs to do," Joe Crede said. "He's a great pitcher and he knows what he's doing. I think everybody knew it before coming in. He's a very professional guy, a great pitcher, and he's definitely going to help this year."

"We got hit a couple of times. They got hit once," Pierzynski added. "It was one of those things that happen in games like this sometime. You don't want anyone to get hurt. I'm just glad it wasn't me for once who got hit."