Rays don’t put up much of a fight, but have one vs. Brewers

MILWAUKEE — Rays centerfielder Jose Siri had already had an eventful night.

In the third inning of what ended up an 8-2 loss, Siri, struggling with a .179 average, hit a massive home run — estimated at 452 feet — off Brewers starter Freddy Peralta, and took a long look at it, then a few slow steps before starting his trot around the bases.

When Siri came up again in the sixth, he was drilled by a 3-0 Peralta pitch in the left thigh, hard enough that he likely won’t play Wednesday. The umpires, convening at the urging of Rays manager Kevin Cash, decided Peralta did so intentionally, ejecting him and, after a vehement protest, ejecting Brewers manager Pat Murphy as well.

But then things got really interesting, leading to a benches-clearing brawl in the eighth inning and some real punches being thrown.

By the end of the night, there were four ejections, the potential for suspensions once Major League Baseball reviews incidents, and the possibility of carryover into Wednesday’s matinee series finale.

Siri led off the eighth hitting a weak grounder that first baseman Rhys Hoskins fielded and tossed to reliever Abner Uribe, who was covering. That led quickly to the fracas, and both Siri and Uribe being ejected.

Siri put the blame on Uribe, who tagged the base and waited for Siri, who kept going toward the base. Siri said as Uribe walked by, Uribe brushed him with his shoulder.

Siri said he asked Uribe why he did that and that he responded, “because I felt like it,” before taking the first swing. Siri, who appeared to have had a few words for Uribe, then stepped toward Uribe and threw a punch as players and coaches from both teams raced to the scene.

“From right there, nothing was said,” Siri said, via team interpreter Manny Navarro. “That’s when he threw the first punch, and then that’s when I defended myself. ... I really don’t have much else to say about it. You know what I said and what he did, that’s all really that happened.”

Uribe, talking via an interpreter, told reporters in the Brewers clubhouse: “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. It’s one of those moments that was a hot situation in the game.”

Siri, who was pulled out of Saturday’s game by Cash for a lack of hustle, said he didn’t think the way he reacted to his home run was worthy of causing the eventual issues.

“I didn’t take too much time,” he said. “I hit the ball, took a couple of steps and then I started running like normal.”

Cash also said he didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary.

“Look, that’s today’s game,” he said. “It is. I don’t know how you police it unless you want to turn it into the NBA when somebody stares at another player, you get a technical. I really don’t know. Pitchers strike guys out and they show them up. Hitters hit home runs, they show them up. That’s the game.”

Peralta said he had no issue with Siri’s reaction — “I’ve been watching video of him hitting homers and he always does that” — and claimed he did not hit him on purpose.

“I wasn’t trying to hit him but the home plate umpire said, ‘Hey Freddy, you’re out.’ I got so mad but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to get everything worse. I was already out,” Peralta said. “I don’t know the reason that they took me out of the game like that. I think it was the wrong decision.’'

Umpire crew chief Chris Guccione told a pool reporter they followed a standard process in that situation: “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.”

Cash said he asked the umpires to discuss the situation because he felt because of the circumstances, and the 3-0 count, “it raises suspicion.” No surprise, he said “they made the right decision.”

Murphy said he didn’t know whether there would be additional discipline from MLB, but “I just hope the truth comes out.”

Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena —who tried to separate some player, then stepped back and stood with ex-teammate Willy Adames, who had his arm around him — said he hopes there isn’t any carryover.

“I think it’s just bad for the game overall,” he said, via communications director Elvis Martinez. “I’m not happy about it, how it went down and the reason I say it’s bad is because people can get injured.”

The night was bad overall for the 14-17 Rays. The Brewers took a 3-0 lead as Tyler Alexander threw 85 pitches in four innings, then Adames hit a three-run homer off Jacob Lopez in the fifth to make it 6-1, and it ended up 8-2. The Rays finished with five hits, 13 strikeouts and no walks.

“Not our best game, obviously,” Cash said.

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