Why did Jose Siri and Abner Uribe come to blows? Inside the Brewers vs. Rays bench-clearing brawl
Emotions were high when Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers met Tuesday night. The high-tension game eventually saw benches getting cleared after punches were thrown between Jose Siri of the Rays and Abner Uribe of the Brewers in the eighth.
Though you rarely see physical altercations happening in MLB games, unlike in the NBA, NHL and NFL, where they're more common, when they do occur, everyone turns to the internet for the reason.
Certainly, the altercation between Siri and Uribe was more than just trash talk between the two. It was a result of night-long tensions between both clubs, which saw as many as four ejections take place throughout the night. Let's see the chain of events that boiled down to the ultimate boxing brawl.
Brewers were carrying hot mind entering Tuesday
Dating back to Sunday, the Brewers were dealt a blowout defeat by the New York Yankees but what more brewed was a seven-run outing in the sixth inning, which may have been avoided if not for the controversial double play call.
A groundball, which was an easy double play, was messed up after Aaron Judge's hand intervened in routine play at first base for the double play. Judge may have deliberately put his hands up to avoid the double play, which wasn't called for by the second base official. Despite the challenge, the onfield call was sustained, giving way to a Brewers pitching collapse in the sixth.
Jose Siri's home run off Freddy Peralta in third
Jose Siri gave a seeming staredown at his home run in the third inning against Freddy Peralta, which may have irked the pitcher and could be seen as the brewing point of the escalation.
Freddy Peralta struck Jose Siri in the leg
The next time Siri and Peralta faced off was in the sixth and Peralta hit Siri in the leg with a 3-0 fastball. Umpires came together and ejected Peralta for his seemingly deliberate hurting move and Pat Murphy was also ejected for an unnecessary argument.
“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.
Peralta had hit Rays DH Harold Ramírez with a pitch in the fifth inning, and Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins was hit by a pitch in the bottom half.
Abner Uribe brushed shoulders with Jose Siri, get to trash talk and that was it
In the eighth inning, Abner Uribe and Jose Siri got into action against each other. It started with Uribe grounding out Siri at first base.
According to Tricia Whitaker's tweet, Siri said Abner Uribe "brushed his shoulders" against him as he reached first base. He then questioned the bullpen pitcher why he did it, and he said, "Because I felt like it."
Out of nowhere, Uribe punched Siri to kickstart the brawl and Siri punched him right back to clear the benches.
Crew chief defends his ejections that boiled down to Jose Siri and Abner Uribe brawl
The ejection of Brewers manager Pat Murphy and Freddy Peralta could be one of the big reasons for the brawl in the eighth. However, crew chief Chris Guccione shed light on the crew's decision to show the door to the two.
“(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.”
On the baseball front, the Brewers emerged victorious with an 8-2 win.