Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Edwin Uceta entered the day with a 0.75 ERA across 24 appearances this season. After his 25th game — an eighth-inning appearance against the Philadelphia Phillies — Uceta now has a 1.49 ERA.
So Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos wasn’t particularly shocked that an upset Uceta took out his frustrations by hitting him on what proved to be the righty’s final pitch of the night before being ejected. In fact, Castellanos says he saw it coming.
“I got into the box, I wasn’t even swinging because I thought there was a chance that could happen. And it happened,” Castellanos said when asked if he thought Uceta intentionally hit him.
“I think that he was just pissed off that his numbers got messed up,” Castellanos added.
The two didn’t have any previous beef did they?
“No, other than like having the overwhelming sense that I was about to get drilled,” Castellanos said.
So Castellanos took the first pitch of his at-bat.
“I can’t explain. I know that he had relatively pretty good numbers going into that. And just watching him, I could see him getting frustrated,” Castellanos said. “And I was digging in and I’m like ‘I’m gonna take this pitch right here to see if he’s around the plate. And it wasn’t anywhere near the plate.”
By the time Castellanos stepped up to bat, five runs — three of which were charged to Uceta — had already scored for the Phillies. Cal Stevenson doubled into right field off Uceta, scoring the two inherited runners of Kody Clemens and Brandon Marsh. Uceta then gave up an RBI single to Buddy Kennedy that scored Stevenson, and a two-run homer by Trea Turner.
Bryce Harper kept the party going for the Phillies with a double into left field, yet Rays manager Kevin Cash elected to keep Uceta in the game to face Castellanos. And for whatever reason, Uceta then decided to drill Castellanos, which understandably upset the Phillies.
“Yeah, I just told him that was bullshit,” Castellanos said of his interaction with Uceta after being hit.
“You’re throwing a baseball over 90 mph and you’re frustrated and you’re gonna throw at somebody? That’s like my two-year-old throwing a fit because I take away his dessert before he’s finished,” Castellanos said.
In an important note, Castellanos did clarify that he does occasionally have to limit his two-year-old son’s dessert intake. “Otto is only allowed so much cake and ice cream,” is the quote that the always-entertaining outfielder finished his press conference with.
Harper didn’t ultimately fight Uceta, but seemed even more angry than Castellanos after the incident. TV cameras caught the two-time NL MVP referring to Uceta as “motherfucker.”
After the game, Harper picked his words a little bit more carefully, but still made clear that he thought Uceta throwing at Castellanos was unacceptable.
“It’s not the game that we play, man. It shouldn’t be,” Harper said. “I mean, guys throw too hard nowadays. You’re getting mad because a guy hits a home run off you or you blow the lead, walk the guy and come out of the game.
“I mean, what are you gonna do? The situation, the whole thing, it just really fired me up,” Harper added. “It really upset me. It’s just not something that we should accept as Major League Baseball.”
Kyle Schwarber — who left the game early with a left elbow contusion — watched the eighth inning fiasco unfold from the trainer’s room. He had a similar reaction to Castellanos and Harper.
“That just shouldn’t be in the game,” Schwarber said. “To take your frustrations out on a hitter just because, in my opinion, you’re getting hit — that’s bullshit. It’s just not right, and there’s just no part of it that should be in the game.
“It doesn’t look good for them,” Schwarber continued. “You know what I mean? So that’s kind of a reflection for them as well. They have to be able to handle that as well.”
Tanner Banks pitched the final inning of a 9-4 win over the Rays, and didn’t attempt to retaliate. It may be that the Phillies determined that Uceta went rogue and hitting someone else on the Rays for payback wouldn’t really make sense. Then again, there’s one more game remaining in this series.
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