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March 10, 2003
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Seattle reliever Arthur Rhodes was ejected, even though he never played in the game, after a bench-clearing shouting match between the Mariners and the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday.
The game ended in a 6-6 tie after 10 innings by mutual agreement of both teams. Willie Bloomquist's two-run homer in the ninth for Seattle sent the game into extra innings.
Oddly, the sixth-inning flareup came between teams whose managers are good friends. First-year Seattle manager Bob Melvin was Arizona manager Bob Brenly's bench coast the past two seasons.
The Diamondbacks' Miguel Batista hit Brett Boone in the left arm in the top of the sixth. Then in the bottom of the inning, Seattle's Jeff Nelson hit Luis Gonzalez in the back with the first pitch.
Both dugouts and bullpens emptied, but no punches were thrown, just a few shoves.
Both Boone and Gonzalez left the game for pinch-runners, but neither was injured.
Melvin said Rhodes, scheduled to pitch later in the game, was thrown out because of remarks an umpire said he made as he walked back to the bullpen.
Melvin didn't accuse Batista of purposely hitting Boone, but was concerned that one of his key players might be hurt and that Rhodes was thrown out. Otherwise, he said, the incident wasn't such a bad thing.
``You never want to see a guy get hit,'' Melvin said, ``but it turned the intensity up and that was good for us because we had been playing a little flat.''
Gonzalez didn't like the fact that there was retaliation in a spring training game.
``It's just a spring training game,'' Gonzalez said. ``By no means are we trying to hit Boonie. He's one of their stars, one of the marquee guys on the team. All of us in here are big fans of his. He plays in the other league. I just thought it was stupid what he (Nelson) did.''
The incident overshadowed another strong outing for Byung-Hyun Kim in his bid to earn a spot in Arizona's starting rotation. The former closer allowed no runs on two hits and struck out five in four innings. Kim also doubled in his only at-bat.
Updated on Monday, Mar 10, 2003 7:20 pm, EST
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