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For the first time this season, the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros met on Monday night. The two AL West rivals opened a four-game series at Minute Maid Park (GameTracker). 

The season is still young -- the calendar just flipped to May, after all -- but this already feels like an important series. Astros infielder Alex Bregman let it be known on Twitter:

I'm guessing the #BTSOOTR hashtag stands for "Beat the (expletive) out of the Rangers." Regardless, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle says the Rangers pinned that tweet on the bulletin board in the clubhouse before Monday's game. So, yes, it's literally bulletin board material.

Sure enough, things between the two in-state rivals got heated right away. The benches cleared after Lance McCullers Jr. threw a pitch behind Mike Napoli in the sixth inning. Here's the video:

Previous events would lead you to believe McCullers threw behind Napoli intentionally. First of all, Napoli hit a monster home run off McCullers earlier in the game. And secondly, Rangers starter Andrew Cashner plunked both Jose Altuve and Yuli Gurriel, though neither appeared to be intentional. Either way, McCullers didn't like it.

Last season the Rangers, who eventually won the AL West, thoroughly manhandled the Astros during the regular season. They won 15 of their 19 head-to-head games (!) and outscored Houston 92-70 in the process. Total domination. That had to be frustrating for the Astros. I'm sure that's motivating them this year.

The Astros went into Monday's in first place in the division with a 16-9 record and a plus-23 run differential. Only the Yankees and Orioles (both 15-8) had better winning percentages in the AL prior to Monday's action. The Rangers, meanwhile, are five games back of Houston at 11-14.

These two clubs will play 19 times this season, so in the grand scheme of things one game doesn't have a huge impact on the standings. You can be sure the Astros have revenge on their mind, though. They don't like the way the season series played out a year ago, and now that they're bona fide World Series contender, you can be sure they want to rub it in the face of the Rangers.