The Dodgers and Mets resumed hostilities in Citi Field on Saturday night (LAD-NYM GameTracker), and Mets ace Noah Syndergaard spiced up things early by throwing behind Chase Utley.

Here's a look ...

That's 99 mph, and that's something like two or three feet behind Utley. That's not exactly headhunting, though, as it was so far behind Utley that he scarcely flinched. "Pitch with a message attached," is more accurate, it would seem.

Still, Syndergaard was promptly run, which raises the possibility that umpires, in a preemptive measure, issued warnings to both sides before the game began.

As for the Mets' Twitter account, they did a pretty nifty job of playing it as it lies ...

All of this, of course, stems from last year's NLDS, when Utley broke the leg of then Mets infielder Ruben Tejada on a brutal takeout slide. Utley's slide left the Mets simmering and in part led to significant rule changes with regard to takeout slides. What you saw above may be the Mets' attempt at revenge, or at least message-sending.

That said, Syndergaard was cruising in this one, as he departed the game with three strikeouts and no walks in 2 1/3 innings of work. And check out his gun readings from the first inning ...

Yes, the young man throws hard. The Mets are of course locked in a tight race with the Nats, and it's an odd choice -- particularly if a warning was already in place -- to have your best pitcher take care of this kind of business in the third inning of a scoreless game versus another likely contender. The Mets could've done this in one of their prior five encounters with the Dodgers this season, or they could've tabled it until Sunday, when they'll play the Dodgers for the final time in 2016 (barring a postseason encounter).

If there wasn't a pregame bench warning in place, then plate ump Adam Hamari has some explaining to do.