Major League Baseball has handed down four suspensions following a benches-clearing brawl in Tuesday night’s Milwaukee Brewers vs. Tampa Bay Rays game.
Brewers reliever Abner Uribe, who was seen throwing punches in the brawl, was given a six-game suspension and an undisclosed fine. Brewers starting pitcher Freddy Peralta, who hit Rays outfielder Jose Siri with a pitch in the top of the sixth inning, was given a five-game suspension and an undisclosed fine.
Siri, who was at the center of the brawl and also throwing punches, received a three-game suspension and an undisclosed fine. And Brewers manager Pat Murphy received a two-game suspension and an undisclosed fine “as a result of Peralta’s actions in addition to his inappropriate conduct towards umpires.”
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In the top of the sixth inning of Tuesday night’s game, an eventual 8-2 Brewers win, Siri was hit by a 95.2 mph fastball thrown by Peralta on a 3-0 count. Siri, who had homered in the third inning off Peralta, didn’t seem to be too upset with the hit by pitch. It wasn’t even clear if it was intentional.
However, the umpires got together and ended up ejecting Peralta from the game without issuing any warnings. Murphy then came out of the dugout to talk to the umpires, and was also thrown out of the game. Click here for a video of that interaction.
After the game, Peralta made it clear the hit by pitch was not intentional.
“I’ve been in the league seven years and I’ve given up a lot of homers, but I’ve never (thrown at anybody) after that,” Peralta told reporters. “There was no reason for me to hit him. My pitch count was really low and my goal tonight was to go deep into the game and give our bullpen a breather because they’ve been working a lot, so there was no reason to hit him.”
The umpire crew chief, Chris Guccione, gave this explanation to a pool reporter regarding the ejection.
“So Siri hit a home run — a pretty good home run … and it was a first-pitch home run,” Guccione said. “So OK, he ran the bases, whatever, and nothing was really said that we noticed. Then you go to the sixth inning, a 3-0 count, and the pitch that hit Siri went right at him. You put what happened previously in the game together, and we get together as a crew and we discuss all the events, and we determined as a crew that Peralta was intentionally throwing at Siri. And with that comes an ejection.”
Fast forward two innings later, and Siri grounded out on a normal play that was covered at first base by Brewers reliever Uribe. Following the ground out, Siri exchanged some words for Uribe. Then, the two started fighting and throwing punches. Here’s a video of the incident, via Barstool Sports on X:
Here’s another angle of the incident, via Fox Sports MLB on X:
“There were some words shared that didn’t have much to do with the game that probably shouldn’t have been shared there in that exchange,” Uribe said to reporters after the game.
As for Siri: “When I went to first base, I just went there normal, and he kind of hit me on the shoulder,” Siri said. “So I asked him why did he do that? And he just said, ‘Because I felt like it.'”
The benches ended up clearing, and both Uribe and Siri were ejected from the game, bringing the ejection total up to four. And as a result of the hit by pitch, brawl and ejections, these four suspensions were handed down by Major League Baseball.
Murphy is not appealing his suspension and is beginning it on Wednesday. However, both pitchers from the Brewers — Peralta and Uribe — are appealing, as is Siri from the Rays.
The Brewers and Rays are completing their three-game series on Wednesday, and then don’t play each other again for the rest of the season. Siri wasn’t in the lineup for Wednesday’s afternoon game, even though he’s appealing his suspension.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.