The Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays engaged in a benches-clearing spat on Tuesday night as part of a 9-4 Phillies victory (box score). The incident occurred during the bottom of the eighth inning, when Rays reliever Edwin Uceta plunked Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos in the back with a 96 mph sinker.
Castellanos took exception. Bryce Harper, who had been stationed at second base, did as well. Harper even walked from the bag to the mound to confront Uceta before being corralled by an infielder. Here’s the entire scene in all its motion picture glory:
Uceta was subsequently ejected from the game, with the Rays inserting fellow reliever Hunter Bigge in his place.
It should be noted that the Castellanos plunking came after Uceta had surrendered hits to four of the five batters he had faced to that point in the game. That included a home run to Trea Turner and a double to Harper in the at-bats directly preceding Castellanos. In other words, the umpires must have felt that Uceta was taking out some of his frustrations from a bad outing by intentionally striking Castellanos.
After the game, Castellanos told reporters that he had decided to take the first pitch, in large part because he suspected that Uceta might throw at him despite the two having no preexisting beef. “We all kinda got a sense of what it was,” he said, “that he was just pissed off that he got hit around and his ERA shot through the roof.”
Uceta, for those wondering, entered the night with a 0.75 ERA in 36 innings. After his rough night, it ballooned to 1.49.
The Phillies’ win improved their record to 87-58 on the year. Kyle Schwarber established a new single-season MLB record with his 14th leadoff home run. He later left the game after suffering left elbow discomfort. He’s considered day to day, according to what manager Rob Thomson said afterward.
The Phillies and Rays will meet once more on Wednesday for the series finale.
