Benches clear between Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays after Nick Castellanos is hit by pitch

(CNN) — The Philadelphia Phillies’ 9-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays descended into chaos on Tuesday night after reliever Edwin Uceta hit Nick Castellanos with a 96mph fastball.

With the game tied going into the bottom of the eighth, Uceta gave up five runs before apparently taking out his frustrations on the Phillies right fielder.

“[I had] an overwhelming sense that I was about to get drilled,” Castellanos said after the game, according to MLB.com. “I just told him that it was bullsh*t. I mean, you’re throwing a baseball over 90 mph. You’re frustrated and you’re going to throw at somebody?

“That’s like my two-year-old throwing a fit because I take away his dessert before he’s finished.”

Castellanos was led away from Uceta by home-plate umpire John Libka, but he was far from the only one incensed by the pitch. Both benches cleared, with Phillies star Bryce Harper in particular making a beeline for the mound.

Tensions eventually subsided without any serious physical confrontation, but despite Uceta’s ejection, Harper was still far from pleased following the game.

“I mean, it’s not a game that we play, man,” Harper said afterwards, as per MLB.com. “It shouldn’t be. Guys throw too hard nowadays. You’re getting mad because a guy hits a homer off you or you blow the lead, walk the guy and come out of the game.

“The situation really fired me up. It upset me. It’s not something that you should accept as Major League Baseball.”

Harper himself had to leave the game against the Toronto Blue Jays last week in Canada after he was hit in the left elbow by a pitch from Bowden Francis in the top of the first.

“I wasn’t trying to do it on purpose,” Uceta said via a team interpreter after Tuesday’s game, according to MLB.com.

“There was a lot going on, so I was just keeping my eye on Castellanos. Again, I didn’t do it on purpose, but I understand the frustration they had. I’ve never been a part of a situation like that before.”

Rays manager Kevin Cash, however, admitted that the game appeared to have gotten to the Dominican. “It looked like he hasn’t been out in that situation. Good kid. Probably lost his composure a little bit,” said Cash, as per MLB.com, before saying he would talk to Uceta and “a bunch of young guys.”

The Castellanos-Uceta incident overshadowed a historic moment for the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber, who broke MLB’s all-time single-season record for leadoff home runs, with his 14th of the year.

Jose Caballero’s RBI single in the top of the second tied the game, before the teams both racked up runs in the second and third.

Trea Turner’s two-run homer in the bottom of the third looked to open up a lead for the Phillies, but the Rays clawed it back again to go into the seventh tied at 4-4.

Then came the big scoring outburst from Philly in the bottom of the eighth. Suddenly, Uceta looked powerless as he walked Marsh and gave up a double to Kody Clemens. Cal Stevenson’s double brought them both home, before Stevenson himself scored on Buddy Kennedy’s single.

A second two-run blast from Turner completed the scoring, and all that was left was for Uceta – whose ERA had ballooned from 0.75 to 1.49 in the space of a few minutes – to turn his ire on Castellanos.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.