LOS ANGELES — Scott Williamson has had enough. He has seen Sean Casey and Austin Kearns take pitches off the head. He's ready to do something about it.

        “We've got good team chemistry here,” Williamson said. “We love each other. We have to put an end to this. ... I'm tired of watching it. Guys are going to get hurt.”

        Williamson, as a pitcher with a 95mph fastball, is in position to take care of it. Stay tuned to things this weekend when the Reds go to San Francisco.

        Williamson wasn't accusing Los Angeles' Giovanni Carrara, who hit Kearns Tuesday night, or Philadelphia's Robert Person, who hit Casey on April 13, of headhunting. Williamson was upset with San Francisco's Felix Rodriguez, who hit Casey on the arm Sunday. Rodriguez hit Casey after Gabe White threw one over Barry Bonds' head earlier.

        “Gabe wasn't trying to hit Bonds,” Williamson said. “That pitch wasn't close. Then Rodriguez throws at Casey's dome.”

        Williamson understood what Rodriguez was doing.“(Rodriguez) was protecting his big dog,” Williamson said. “That's fine. I have no problem with him hitting (Casey), but hit him in the leg or ribs. When you go up and in, you're messing with guys' careers, guys' lives. You could kill someone.”

        The Reds go to San Francisco Friday for a three-game series, and Williamson expects things to carry over.

        “It should,” he said. “He throws one at one of the nicest guys in baseball. There's bad blood there.”

        Rodriguez made things worse by saying Casey “shouldn't cry about it.”

        “He wasn't crying,” Williamson said. “He was mad. What Felix did was uncalled for. It was chicken.”

        Williamson plans to talk to Rodriguez, a former Red, about the incident in San Francisco.

        Williamson was the most animated in discussing the incident. But other pitchers feel the same.

        “I think we've seen guys get too comfortable throwing up and in to our guys,” reliever Jim Brower said.

        Scott Sullivan was involved in a similar incident in 2000. He hit Brian Hunter after a Colorado pitcher had hit Ken Griffey Jr. A brawl ensued, and both Sullivan and Hunter were suspended. (Oddly enough, Hunter was traded to the Reds before he served his suspension and ended up serving it as a Red).

        Sullivan echoed what Brower said.

        “Do I think Carrara was trying to hit Kearns? No,” Sullivan said. “But do I think he was trying to brush him off the plate? Yes. In attempting to do that, he threw in a very dangerous area.” Going into Wednesday's game with the Dodgers, Reds hitters had been hit 15 times, most in the National League. Reds pitchers had hit seven batters, seventh fewest.

        And the Giants? They've hit a total of two batters, fewest in the NL.

        The Reds had one of their pitchers, Luis Pineda, suspended for hitting Chicago's Todd Hundley.

        Williamson said he wouldn't be headhunting.

        “I'd never do that,” he said.

Reds 4, Dodgers 0 Reds box, runs Larkin hits first HR since June Dodgers blanked for fifth time Williamson ready to defend teammates Kearns battered after beaning Miller pushing LaRue for starter's job Reds Notebook: Shaw talks back on Rockies 6, Pirates 0 Padres 4, Cubs 3 Mets 7, Diamondbacks 1 White Sox 9, Mariners 2

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