WASHINGTON — The unfortunate part of this cold war, as Rob Manfred noted Tuesday, is that baseball’s owners and players occupy a fair amount of common ground when it comes to the game’s radical evolution.

“I think that the period of time between putting balls in play [is troubling],” the commissioner said at a Baseball Writers’ Association of America meeting. “The number of strikeouts. To a lesser extent, the number of home runs. The significance of the shift and what it’s done to the game. The use of relief pitchers. The way starting pitchers are going to be used.

“The most interesting thing about that: I bet you that list of issues of concern on our side is pretty darn close to the list of issues that would be of concern to the MLBPA and the players.”

That’s a good bet by Manfred (gambling is legal now, remember), as his counterpart, Players Association executive director Tony Clark, preceded him by voicing similar unease about baseball’s dramatic transformation from the game he played not long ago, although Clark prefers going slowly on the rule changes whereas Manfred prefers to get moving.

So why can’t they sit down and solve this? Because this ownership-player dynamic carries a dangerous tension that hasn’t been witnessed in a generation. One that threatens baseball’s viability as it tries to push forward.

Fueled by last winter’s unrewarding free-agent market, heightened by disagreement about how to solve the pace- and style-of-play topics, the discord aired publicly Tuesday, when Clark and Manfred exchanged strong words — Clark primarily with vague threats, Manfred mainly with forceful rejoinders — as they took turns doing their annual All-Star Game questions and answers with the BBWAA.

“What we experienced last offseason was a direct attack on free agency, which has been the bedrock of our economic system,” Clark said. “And if that is going to be different, then we have some very difficult decisions to make moving forward.”

“’Direct attack’ involves or connotes some sort of purposeful behavior,” Manfred responded. “The only purposeful behavior that took place in the free-agent market last year is our clubs carefully analyzed the available players and the individual decisions as to what they thought those players were worth. I think if you look back at the end of the year, you’ll look at the performance of those players and I’m pretty sure, based on what’s already in the books, you’re going to make the judgment that the clubs made sound decisions as to how those players should be valued.”

Ouch. Ouch, also, when Manfred punched back at Clark’s repeated vow that he wanted to sit down with the Major League Baseball folks regarding the on-the-field stuff.

“We started out last year. We made an extensive effort to get meetings on pace of play,” Manfred said. “We got exactly one of those and then went through the offseason that we went through.

“… Shortly after the season began, I called Tony and I told him I was again prepared to have a broader conversation about how the game is being played on the field beyond pace of play. In response to those last two invitations, we still have not had a meeting.”

Manfred also mocked

the union’s February grievance against the A’s, Rays, Pirates and Marlins

, the former two of whom own winning records at the All-Star break, opining that the PA collected information after filing the grievance, an out-of-order process. He added he didn’t envision the DH expanding into the National League despite the players’ interest in doing so.

Asked directly about a work stoppage after the current collective-bargaining agreement expires in 2021, Clark said: “There’s a lot that can happen between now and 2021. … Our players are very passionate about the rights they have. … To the extent that there are challenges to those rights, historically, I would suggest those have manifested themselves a particular way.”

That would be a work stoppage.

Imagine firefighters from neighboring towns approaching the same blaze and bickering over how to extinguish it. How long can they go at it before the fire causes some damage?

The owners and players have time to handle this disturbance. Yet they’re off to a terrible start.