That’s some childish behavior.
Nick Castellanos slammed Rays reliever Edwin Uceta for acting like a toddler after hitting him with a pitch following the Phillies breaking open the game against Uceta in Tuesday’s 9-4 win.
Uceta entered with the game tied 4-4 but allowed five runs — two inherited — to score and then hit Castellanos with a 96-mph sinker, leading to his ejection and the benches clearing.
“And I just told him that was bulls–t. You’re throwing a baseball over 90 miles an hour and you’re frustrated and you’re going to throw at somebody, you know?” Castellanos said. “That’s like my 2-year-old throwing a fit because I took away his dessert before he was finished.”
Things got out of hand Tuesday night when the Phillies gave Uceta an un-brotherly reception when he entered a tie game with runners on second and third with one out.
Cal Stevenson greeted Uceta with a two-run double before Buddy Kennedy added an RBI single and Trea Turner capped the scoring with a two-run homer.
Bryce Harper doubled after Turner’s homer and Uceta then hit Castellanos on his left hip with the next pitch, which the veteran outfielder expected.
“I had an overwhelming sense that I was about to get drilled,” Castellanos said, according to the Associated Press. “We all just got a sense of what it was — he was just (ticked) off that he got hit around and his ERA shot through the roof.”
Castellanos pointed toward Uceta before dropping his bat to extend his hands and question the pitcher while the benches promptly cleared.
Uceta said he did not purposefully hit Castellanos, although he claimed he threw an off-speed pitch. MLB.com data labeled the pitch as a two-seam fastball.
“It was quite the situation,” Uceta said through a translator. “I was struggling a little bit, so I was just trying to locate my pitches, it was a change-up that kind of got away, obviously it hit him, and was not the intention I was trying to hit him on purpose.”
Harper started running toward Uceta before being shielded by two Rays players, while Tampa catcher Logan Driscoll and home plate umpire John Libka kept Castellanos from charging Uceta.
The two-time MVP made it clear he would not have blindsided the pitcher.
“He didn’t turn around. I didn’t want to be a loser and come up behind him,” Harper said. “If he’s going to turn around, then alright, let’s go. But he never turned around so I didn’t want to be a loser.”
Harper, however, had no problems ripping Uceta for his actions.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said he would talk to Uceta and “a bunch of young guys” about the situation, according to MLB.com.
“He hit him on purpose,” Harper said. “It’s not the game that we play, man, 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, come out the game, what are you going to do? The situation, the whole thing, just really fired me up, really upset me, just not something that you should accept as Major League Baseball.”
Castellanos went 0-for-4 in the win, and the Phillies now lead the NL East by eight games over both the Mets and Braves with 17 games remaining in their season.
The right fielder also confirmed he has indeed taken his son’s dessert away before finishing.
“Of course,” he said with a laugh. “Otto Is only allowed so much ice cream and cake, man.”
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