MILWAUKEE -- Punches were thrown when a brawl broke out between the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers during the eighth inning of Tuesday night's game.
The fracas ensued after Jose Siri grounded out against Brewers pitcher Abner Uribe leading off the inning. Uribe and Siri exchanged words near first base and things quickly became heated.
With an umpire standing between them trying to keep the peace, Uribe threw a punch at Siri, who then took a wild swing at the reliever.
Siri claimed Uribe escalated the exchange with a shoulder bump. Uribe said it began with some "unnecessary" words from Siri.
Milwaukee first baseman Rhys Hoskins tried to break up the fight but was knocked to the ground as both dugouts and bullpens emptied quickly.
"I don't know who said something first but I saw them talking to each other somewhat discreetly and then off it went," Hoskins said.
The animosity between Siri and the Brewers had been building all night, starting when he took a long look at his solo home run off Freddy Peralta in the third.
When Siri came up again in the sixth, Peralta drilled him with a 3-0 fastball, leading to ejections for Peralta and Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy.
"Peralta had really thrown the ball well, up to that point, commanding the baseball extremely well, so 3-0, it raises suspicion," Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
Cash asked the umpires to discuss the situation and make a determination.
"[Siri] hit a home run in the top of the third and it was a first-pitch home run," plate umpire and crew chief Chris Guccione told a pool reporter. "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. That's really the process."
Milwaukee went on to win 8-2.
Murphy demurred when asked for his perspective on Peralta's ejection, but Peralta denied throwing at Siri intentionally and was surprised to be ejected for the first time in his career.
"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 said. "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."