Punches thrown! Brewers Abner Uribe loses his mind in wild benches-clearing brawl

There may have been bees swarming in Arizona but the only thing flying in Milwaukee on Tuesday night were punches.

The first big brawl of the 2024 MLB season came courtesy of the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays...and the umpires.

Abner Uribe and Jose Siri exchanged words in the top of the eighth but it really escalated when Uribe threw a punch. The benches cleared and things went crazy.

Brawl between Brewers and Rays was preceded by outrageous ejections

You could argue the umpires helped lead to this explosion of violence. Home plate ump Chris Guccione overreacted to Siri being hit by a pitch by ejecting pitcher Freddy Peralta and manager Pat Murphy.

The game was still relatively close and there were no fireworks beforehand. Peralta was dealing and it didn't feel like he'd have any reason to throw at someone. There were no warnings for either team. Despite that, the ump created a flashpoint by sending the pitcher and manager to the showers.

Would the subsequent fight have happened anyways? Who knows, but the ejections certainly didn't help decrease tensions.

According to Siri, the brawl started when Uribe brushed him on the shoulder at first base. Siri asked Uribe why he did it and Uribe responded, "Because I felt like it." As the two came together, with an umpire in between, Uribe took a swing and it all went off.

Since both players are on video throwing punches, it's safe to expect both of them to get hefty suspensions from MLB. An umpire being in the middle of the fray won't help either of them when the league is determining how many games they'll miss.

The Brewers won 8-2 to even the series. After all that heat, expect Wednesday's game and series finale to carry plenty of tension.