Castellanos and Harper rip Rays reliever Uceta after beanball

Nick Castellanos’ antenna was up as he stepped into the batter’s box in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday. The Phillies had just scored five runs on Rays reliever Edwin Uceta, who entered the night with a 0.75 ERA and 0.69 WHIP, and Castellanos thought there was a chance he might get plunked by a frustrated pitcher losing his composure.

The first pitch Uceta threw was a 96 mph sinker, his fastest pitch of the entire season, directly at Castellanos’ front hip.

“I got into the box and I wasn’t even swinging because I thought there was a chance that could happen. I think that he was just pissed off that his numbers got messed up,” Castellanos said postgame.

“An overwhelming sense that I was about to get drilled. I can’t explain it. I know that he had pretty good numbers going into that. Just watching him, I could see him getting frustrated, and I was digging in, I’m like, I’m gonna take this pitch to see if he’s around the plate and it wasn’t anywhere near the plate.”

Castellanos reacted instantly, pointing at Uceta and calling BS. He was restrained by home plate umpire John Libka, but Bryce Harper was just as peeved at second base. He rapidly approached the mound and at one point was surrounded by Rays as both benches cleared.

Uceta was ejected after the situation died down.

“We all kinda got a sense of what it was, that he was just pissed off that he got hit around and his ERA shot through the roof,” Castellanos said. “I think Bryce kinda felt the same thing that I did. That wasn’t even close.”

Uceta is Tampa Bay’s best healthy reliever and he entered with the game tied. Brandon Marsh worked a walk and Kody Clemens doubled him over to third. Pinch-hitter Cal Stevenson delivered the game-winning hit, a two-run double off Uceta. Buddy Kennedy singled him in and Trea Turner capped off the rally with his second two-run homer of the game.

Uceta’s ERA doubled and Castellanos and Harper enjoyed getting a few jabs in postgame.

“I just told him that was bull****,” Castellanos said. “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.”

Harper was just as direct.

“He hit him on purpose,” he said. “It’s not the game that we play, 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 and come out of the game. I mean, what are you gonna do? The whole thing really fired me up, really upset me. Just not something that you should accept as Major League Baseball.

“The guy’s got a 0.74. There’s just no reason to drill a guy because you give up some runs. It’s just not right.”

These sorts of situations can sometimes be galvanizing moments for a team, but the Phillies are rolling anyway. They’ve won 18 of 25 games and have the best record in baseball at 87-58.

“We don’t really need moments like that because we are that type of team,” Harper said. “If we’re going to dinner or hanging out, watching football in here, we’re a very close-knit team. When something like that happens, you just get upset because it’s not right. We don’t need moments like that to bring us together. We know what we need to do, we understand what the goal is, we’ve just got to keep going.”