Tommy Pham nearly instigates brawl with Brewers after home plate collision

Tommy Pham was not happy after the White Sox were swept by the Brewers
Chicago White Sox v Milwaukee Brewers
Chicago White Sox v Milwaukee Brewers / Stacy Revere/GettyImages
facebooktwitterreddit

It was a wild day at the ballpark for the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago White Sox. The Brewers were going for a sweep and their fifth straight victory and the White Sox saw their frustrations grow and nearly boil over.

In the top of the 8th inning, Kevin Herget walked the first two batters he faced, Dominic Fletcher and Tommy Pham. Pat Murphy pulls Herget in favor of Enoli Paredes. Zach Remillard came in to pinch run for Fletcher because he injured himself robbing William Contreras of a home run the half inning before. That robbery kept it a 4-3 Brewers lead.

A wild pitch from Paredes got away from Contreras, and Remillard was trying to advance to third but was gunned down by Contreras. The incredible scoring chance with two on and nobody out the White Sox had took a major hit on that play.

Nicky Lopez then hits a ground rule double to center, which would've scored Remillard had he stayed put and tied the game. Instead, it's second and third with Tommy Pham as the tying run.

Corey Julks hits a shallow fly to left and Christian Yelich makes a perfect throw to get Pham trying to tie the game and instead end the inning. Pham was upset and nearly instigated yet another benches clearing incident involving the Brewers and the second one in a week.

Pham appeared to be shadowboxing a little bit after that incident. Contreras wagged his glove and went to the dugout and said postgame that he didn't hear what Pham was upset about.

The Brewers were heading off the field because the inning was over. Pham was being held back by his coaches and teammates but was clearly upset and ready to fight if the Brewers responded. They did not.

After the game, Pham had some choice words. (WARNING: NSFW audio)

"I'll never start anything but I'll be prepared to finish it. There's a reason why I do all kinds of fighting in the offseason, because I'm prepared to f*** somebody up, so you can take it as what it is" Pham said. He referred to Contreras as a "tough guy" doing some "rah-rah s***" after the play, talking about his glove wag.

Tensions seem to rise when teams play the Brewers, although in this case the Brewers didn't do anything to escalate the situation. Contreras' glove wag may have stirred up some anger in Pham, who already seemed upset about being sent on such a shallow fly ball. The White Sox continue to lose and fall deeper into last place, which also doesn't help the mentality.

Really the only bench that cleared was Chicago's, the Brewers just kind of looked on wondering what Pham was upset about. No one went out and started jawing back at Pham.

Next for the Brewers is a road trip to Philadelphia. The Phillies are one of the best teams in baseball right now while the White Sox are one of the worst, arguably the worst team. Frustrations seem to be boiling over for Tommy Pham, who once slapped a teammate over a fantasy football dispute, and it nearly cause yet another brawl involving the Brewers on Sunday.

manual