Rays don't put up much of a fight, but have one in 8-2 loss vs. Brewers

MILWAUKEE — The Rays went down again, 8-2, on Tuesday, but not without a fight.

Jose Siri was in the center of the action for the Rays throughout the night, capped by the benches clearing in the eighth.

First, he hit a massive homer, estimated at 452 feet, in the third inning and took a long look at it, and a slow trot around the bases.

When he came up again in the sixth inning, with the Rays down 6-1, Brewers starter Freddy Peralta, who had allowed just the one hit and no walks, hit him in the left thigh. That led to Peralta and angry Brewers manager Pat Murphy being ejected.

Then things got really interesting when Siri came up in the eighth. He led off and grounded to first, with Rhys Hoskins tossing the ball to pitcher Abner Uribe, who was covering.

Uribe appeared to say something first to Siri, then took a slap at him. Siri took a swing back, then Hoskins pushed him. That led players and coaches to race onto the field. As several Brewers tried to contain Siri, he threw a few more punches. As that happened, several other scrums broke out.

Order was eventually restored. Uribe left the game, as did Siri.

The Rays, who dropped to 14-17, were down 3-0 when Siri — hitting .179 for the season — launched the massive homer to left center for their first hit.

The Brewers had extended their lead to 6-1 — on a three-run homer by ex-Ray Willy Adames — when Siri came up again with one out in the sixth.

Peralta, who had allowed just the one hit and no walks, fell behind Siri 3-0, missing badly. He then drilled Siri in the left thigh.

Home plate umpire and crew chief Chris Guccione gathered his group, which apparently decided Peralta had done so intentionally. Murphy charged out to argue, and he was soon ejected as well.

Murphy has had a rough week, claiming calls went against the Brewers unfairly in Sunday’s loss to the Yankees, and then again in Monday’s loss to the Rays, and doubling down before Tuesday’s game that the umpires were wrong.

The Rays started Tyler Alexander, rather than use him behind an opener, in part because the Brewers haven’t hit lefties well.

Alexander kept them to three runs over four innings, but he threw a lot of pitches in doing so, 75 in the first three frames alone.

The Brewers got one in the first when leadoff-hitting catcher William Contreras singled and came around to score on a sac fly by Adames.

Then they got two in the second, stringing together three consecutive one-out singles and a sacrifice fly.

Rookie lefty Jacob Lopez took over for the Rays in fifth, and that didn’t go well. He hit the first batter, gave up a single to the second and then a three-run homer to Adames to make it 6-1.