Philadelphia Phillies stars Nick Castellanos and Bryce Harper ripped Tampa Bay Rays relief pitcher Edwin Uceta after a benches-clearing incident in the bottom of the eighth inning of Philadelphia's 9-4 win at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday.
Uceta entered the game with one out and two runners on, then proceeded to surrender a two-run double, RBI single and two-run home run before allowing a double to Harper. On the first pitch of the ensuing at-bat, Uceta plunked Castellanos in the back with a 96-MPH sinker.
Castellanos threw his hands up in frustration and yelled out towards Uceta. Harper approached the Rays reliever from second in an effort to confront him before he was waylaid by two Rays. The benches then cleared.
Benches clear in Philadelphia between the Phillies and the Rays. pic.twitter.com/KkdmS9AmZS
— MLB (@MLB) September 11, 2024
After the game, Castellanos told reporters he could tell that he was about to get hit, judging by Uceta's increasing frustrations on the mound.
"I can't explain it," Castellanos said. "I know that he had pretty good numbers going into that. Just watching him I could see him getting frustrated and digging in I'm like, 'I'm gonna take this pitch here and see if he's around the plate.' "
"And it wasn't anywhere near me."
Castellanos said the Phillies "all got a sense" that Uceta was frustrated because his "ERA shot through the roof."
Uceta entered play with a 0.75 ERA but the mark ballooned to 1.49 after he was charged with three earned runs.
Castellanos then compared Uceta's behavior to that of his two-year-old son.
"You're throwing a baseball over 90 miles an hour and you're frustrated and you're gonna throw at somebody," Castellanos said. "It's like my 2-year-old throwing a fit because I take away his dessert before he's finished."
Harper told reporters that Uceta's actions don't line up with "the game that we play."
"He hit him on purpose," Harper said. "It's not the game that we play. It shouldn't be. Guys throw too hard nowadays. You're getting mad because a guy hits a homer off of you or you blow the lead, walk the guy and come out of the game. What are you going to do? it's just the situation."
"The whole thing just really fired me up, really upset me. Just not something you should accept as Major League Baseball."
The Phillies and Rays play the final game of the three-game series on Wednesday at 6:40 p.m. ET.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Nick Castellanos, Bryce Harper Rip Rays Pitcher After Benches-Clearing Incident.
