Siri, Uribe, Peralta suspended for Rays-Brewers fracas

MILWAUKEE -- Brewers pitchers Abner Uribe, Freddy Peralta and manager Pat Murphy and Rays center fielder Jose Siri all drew suspensions and undisclosed fines from Major League Baseball following their ejections during Tuesday’s eventful win over the Rays at American Family Field.

Murphy (two games) and Siri (three games) began serving their suspensions with Wednesday’s series finale, and Siri successfully appealed his suspension to have it reduced to two games. The Brewers said that Uribe (six games) and Peralta (five games) had also elected to appeal, and that their suspensions were held in abeyance, which is why Uribe was able to pitch the eighth inning of Wednesday’s 7-1 Brewers win.

Following Wednesday's series finale, Uribe was optioned to Triple-A Nashville. He will serve his suspension upon his return to the Majors.

Associate manager Rickie Weeks served as Brewers skipper with Murphy out, and will do the same when the Brewers open a big, three-game series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Friday. In appealing his suspension, Peralta hopes to pitch that series finale as scheduled.

“I want to pitch on Sunday,” Peralta said.

Siri will be eligible to return Saturday after sitting out Wednesday’s series finale at American Family Field and Friday’s series opener against the Mets at Tropicana Field.

“From my recall of what took place and trying to gather stories, it’s a pretty stiff penalty for a guy that didn't really initiate too much,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

Tuesday’s drama began with one out in the sixth inning, when a wayward fastball from Peralta struck Siri in the left leg. To that point of the game, Peralta had been sharp, facing only one batter more than the minimum -- Siri, who’d watched a long home run fly to the bleachers in his previous at-bat.

At Cash's request, the umpiring crew led by plate ump Chris Guccione conferred to discuss the matter. Peralta was promptly ejected, followed by Murphy when he emerged to argue that decision.

“There are three options: You can do nothing, you can warn, and you can eject,” Guccione told a pool reporter after the game. “Those are our three options. In this situation where we got together as a crew and determined that it was intentional, our only option is to eject in this situation.”

“I was mad, but it could be worse,” Peralta said. “If I expressed myself with the umpires, it could be worse. Imagine if I got suspended with more days. I don’t want that for me and for the team.”

In the eighth, Siri batted again, this time against hard-throwing Brewers reliever Uribe. Siri hit a slow groundout to first base, with Uribe covering the bag. When the two converged, there were words, followed by punches and an emptying of both dugouts.

“I could tell that something was being said and we tried to get in there to break them up,” Guccione said, “but it happened so fast that it blew up.”

Uribe said he was angry about “some words shared that didn’t have much to do with the game that probably shouldn’t have been shared there.” But Siri insisted that little was said.

“When I went to first base, I just went there normal and he kind of hit me on the shoulder,” Siri said. “So I asked him, why did he do that? And he just said because I felt like it.

“From right there, nothing was said. That's when he threw the first punch, and then that's when I defended myself with the two punches.”

Uribe and Siri were ejected after order was restored.

Siri was not expected to play in Wednesday’s series finale regardless of any potential discipline, as he was dealing with a left leg bruise where he was hit by Peralta’s pitch. But he acknowledged before the news came down that he could be suspended as a result of his actions, though he also argued he was not at fault for what took place.

“I was just defending myself. He was the one that threw [a punch] first,” Siri said through Rays interpreter Manny Navarro. “I was just defending myself. I don’t think I did anything bad.

“When I was in the on-deck circle and he was warming up, I felt like he kept looking over at me and staring at me. So I just kind of had that feeling, and obviously when I went over to first base, I confirmed that he had a problem with me.”