José Siri and Abner Uribe (Photo via BallySportWI Twitter)

Tempers flared between the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays during Tuesday night’s game at American Family Field, leading to by far the most intense bench-clearing brawl of the young 2023 MLB season.

The Milwaukee Brewers hosted the Tampa Bay Rays in the second tilt of a three-game series, looking to avenge Monday night’s 1-0 home loss. The Brewers bounced back nicely with an easy 8-2 victory over the Rays.

But that won’t be the main part of the story tonight. Rather, it was the heated bench-clearing brawl in the top of the eighth inning that began after Rays outfielder José Siri exchanged some words with Brewers pitcher Abner Uribe.

Siri and Uribe started arguing after the former grounded out to first base. One of the umpires attempted to break up the altercation before it turned physical, but that went nowhere as the benches quickly cleared:

 

The two players were ejected from the contest, and both face the likelihood of suspensions for their roles in the brawl. The Rays and Brewers will square off in a rubber match at 1:10 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

The Milwaukee Brewers Are Off To A Red-Hot Start

Many expected the Milwaukee Brewers to regress after trading away ace pitcher Corbin Burnes to the Baltimore Orioles in an offseason blockbuster deal and after losing beloved manager Craig Counsell to the Chicago Cubs.

But the Brewers haven’t missed a beat thus far in 2024, jumping out to an excellent 18-11 start through 29 games. With the Chicago Cubs losing to the New York Mets on Tuesday, Milwaukee is half a game up for first in the NL Central.

Milwaukee has qualified for the postseason in five of the last six years, but they’ve only won a single playoff series in that period (the 2018 NLDS). So far, however, the departures of Burnes and Counsell haven’t done anything to slow down this NL powerhouse.