Ridiculous ump show leads to ejections, massive brawl between Brewers and Rays

The Milwaukee Brewers had already seen some questionable umpiring calls over the last couple days. Not only was another such call made Tuesday night even worse than those two, it may have been the spark that led to a chaotic scene later in the game.

The Brewers had been largely cruising along heading into the sixth inning of their Tuesday night affair against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Crew owned a 6-1 lead and starter Freddy Peralta had given up just one hit, a solo shot to Rays outfielder Jose Siri.

That homer, which Siri hit in the third inning, seemed mostly innocuous in the moment. The 28-year-old maybe watched it go out from home plate for a few extra seconds, but that's not uncommon in today's game.

Fast forward back to the sixth. With the five-run lead, one out, and a 3-0 count on Siri, Peralta hit Siri on the leg with a slider. To most, it didn't seem like an intentional act. But after a quick meeting of the minds, crew chief Chris Guccione didn't agree and with no prior warnings having been issued, he ejected Peralta from the game.

After the controversial call in Sunday's game against the Yankees and then another questionable one that prevented a game-tying Brewers run in Monday's game, a call that got Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy to get ejected for the first time this season, it's not surprising that the Brewers skipper was less than appreciative with Guccione's decision.

Murphy would let Guccione know his opinion of the unnecessary ejection and get tossed himself once again. In the process, Guccione escalated the situation by moving toward Murphy to get his own two (or perhaps twenty) cents in. Eventually the game would resume, but with some tenseness that didn't need to be there.

Fast forward once again to the eighth inning. The Brewers would now have an 8-2 lead and Siri would be back at the plate, this time with Milwaukee reliever Abner Uribe on the mound. Siri would hit a grounder to Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins, who would flip to Uribe covering the bag for the out.

After that, Uribe would linger at first for a bit and he and Siri would brush against each other a bit in passing. As Uribe was walking away, Siri said something bad enough to cause Uribe to turn around and walk back toward first. Then, the powder keg went off.

It was a chaotic scene that erupted in Milwaukee with benches clearing on both sides immediately. Having each thrown punches, Uribe and Siri were each ejected from the game. Both will all but certainly face suspensions from the league.

But it's hard to imagine that this couldn't have been avoided had the earlier unnecessary ejection not happened. No tempers were flaring after Peralta hit Siri. In fact by ejecting Peralta, Guccione may have been the one that planted the seed in Siri's mind that the act was intentional. At the very least, his actions toward Murphy added tension to the situation.

Fans come to games to watch the players, yet time and again in games across the league, it feels like umps find it necessary to make themselves a plot point in a game. It sure felt like that in Tuesday night's Brewers game and that resulted in an unfortunate chaotic situation that just didn't need to happen.