St. Louis ? The regular season may be over, but the war of words between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals continues with St. Louis reliever Steve Kline saying he hopes Cubs right-hander Mark Prior “takes a line drive to the forehead and we never have to see him again.”

The comments from Kline, a left-hander known for his soiled cap and sometimes outrageous comments, appeared Monday on KSDK-TV in St. Louis. It wasn’t clear whether he was joking. Calls to his home telephone went unanswered Tuesday.

Prior is scheduled to start Friday in Game 3 of the Cubs’ first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Braves.

The Cardinals and Cubs have been rivals for more than a century, a rivalry that heated up this season as the teams and the Houston Astros battled for the National League Central title.

By mid-September, with the Cardinals on the verge of elimination, St. Louis right-hander Matt Morris said he wanted the Astros to win the division if the Cardinals couldn’t.

Days later, with the Cardinals and Astros about to begin a three-game series, Prior told Sporting News Radio he couldn’t root for the Cardinals, even against Houston.

“I hope actually that Houston beats their brains in and just sends them all the way back to whoever is in fourth place now,” Prior said.

“Biggio and Bagwell are classy guys,” Kline told KSDK, referring to Houston’s Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell.

“They play hard every day,” he said. “They don’t have a guy popping off, saying how they want us to get our heads bashed in. I hope Prior takes a line drive to the forehead and we never have to see him again.”