Castellanos and Harper criticize Rays relief pitcher Uceta after Beanball originally aired on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Nick Castellanos’ antennae were up when he entered the batter’s box in the bottom half of the eighth inning on Tuesday. The Phillies had just scored five runs against Rays relief pitcher Edwin Uceta, who entered the evening with a 0.75 ERA and 0.69 WHIP, and Castellanos thought there was a chance he could get hit by a frustrated pitcher losing his composure.
The first pitch Uceta threw was a 96 mph sinker, his fastest pitch of the entire season, right to Castellanos’ front hip.
“I came into the box and didn’t even swing because I thought it might happen. I think he was just mad that his numbers got messed up,” Castellanos said after the game.
“An overwhelming feeling that I was about to get taken down. I can’t explain it. I know he had pretty good numbers when he did that. Just watching him, I could see him getting frustrated and I strained and thought to myself, I’m going to take this pitch to see if it’s near the plate, and it wasn’t near the plate.”
Castellanos reacted immediately, pointing at Uceta and shouting “Bullshit.” He was held back by home plate umpire John Libka, but Bryce Harper was just as upset at second base. He quickly approached the mound and was surrounded by Rays at one point when both benches were empty.
After the situation calmed down, Uceta was thrown out.
“We all kind of felt what it was, that he was just mad because he was getting beat up and his ERA was through the roof,” Castellanos said. “I think Bryce kind of felt the same thing I did. It wasn’t even close.”
Uceta is Tampa Bay’s best healthy reliever and entered the game with the game tied. Brandon Marsh worked a walk and Kody Clemens moved him to third base with a double. Pinch-hitter Cal Stevenson delivered the game-winning hit, a two-run double against Uceta. Buddy Kennedy brought him in with a single and Trea Turner capped the rally with his second two-run homer of the game.
Uceta’s ERA doubled and Castellanos and Harper enjoyed some postgame banter.
“I just told him that’s bullshit,” Castellanos said. “You throw a baseball over 90 miles an hour and you get frustrated and want to throw it at somebody? That’s like my 2-year-old throwing a tantrum because I took away his dessert before he finishes it.”
Harper was just as direct.
“He hit him on purpose,” he said. “That’s not the game we play, and it shouldn’t be. Guys throw too hard these days. You get mad because a guy hits a home run against you or you blow the lead. You let the guy walk and leave the game. I mean, what do you do? The whole thing really made me angry, really upset me. That’s just not something that should be accepted as Major League Baseball.”
“The guy is 0.74. There’s just no reason to drill a guy just because it’s going to give you a few runs. That’s just not right.”
Such situations can sometimes be very motivating for a team, but the Phillies are still on a roll. They have 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’re such a team,” Harper said. “When we go to dinner or hang out and watch football here, we’re a very close-knit team. When something like that happens, you’re just upset because it’s not right. We don’t need moments like that to bond us together. We know what we have to do, we understand what the goal is, we just have to keep going.”
