Bryce Harper and Trea Turner have big nights to lead the Phillies past the Rays

When Nick Castellanos stepped up to the plate against Tampa Bay in the eighth inning on Tuesday, he had a sense that he was about to get hit by a pitch.

The inning had been unusual from the start, with Bryson Stott hitting a screamer that bounced off the ump and right to the Rays’ first baseman, erasing what could have been a triple. But the Phillies had been clutch after that, and pulled ahead for what would ultimately be a 9-4 win.

Pinch-hitting Cal Stevenson knocked a two-run double to break the tie. Then, Millville native Buddy Kennedy stepped up to the plate as chants of “Bud-dy, Bud-dy!” rained down for the second night in a row. This time, the utility man responded with his first hit as a Phillie, an RBI single. Trea Turner kept the line moving with his second two-run homer of the game, before Bryce Harper doubled in the next at-bat.

Rays reliever Edwin Uceta entered Tuesday with a 0.75 ERA. He was charged with three runs and had only recorded one out before Castellanos stepped into the box.

“I wasn’t even swinging, because I thought there was a chance that that could happen. And it happened,” Castellanos said. “I think that he was just [ticked] off that his numbers got messed up.”

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Uceta drilled Castellanos on the waist with a 96.5 mph fastball, and both benches immediately cleared. Harper ran toward the mound from where he was standing on second, and the bullpens emptied as the relievers joined the melee.

“You’re throwing a baseball over 90 miles an hour, and you’re frustrated, and you’re going to throw at somebody,” Castellanos said. “That’s like my 2-year-old throwing a fit because I take away his dessert before he’s finished.”

Uceta, who entered the game with a 4.5% walk rate, was ejected by umpire James Hoye.

“It’s not the game that we play, man, it shouldn’t be,” Harper said. “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 going to do? It’s just the situation. The whole thing just really fired me up, really upset me. Just not something that you should accept as Major League Baseball.”

Harper finished with three doubles on a 4-for-5 night. He thought he had his first home run since Aug. 9 in the fifth inning, and had already finished his trot around the bases after crushing a first-pitch cutter from Taj Bradley. But replay review revealed a fan had reached over the right-field wall to snag the ball.

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Perhaps the 106-mph laser would have made it out anyway. But due to the fan interference, it was ruled a double, and Harper’s home-run drought reached 118 plate appearances by the end of the game.

Harper also had a near-miss on Monday in the series opener against the Rays. He has been feeling good about his swing, he said, even if the ball hasn’t been going over the fence.

“I don’t think I missed anything. I don’t understand how the ball’s not going,” Harper said. “You hit it at 108 [mph] … it’s not going out of the yard. I’ve never seen that at the Bank.”

The Phillies’ bats were able to pick up starting pitcher Ranger Suárez, who had a shaky outing. His pitch velocity was higher than his last start against Miami, but still lower than his season average. Suárez’s sinker, which he threw 45% of the time, hovered around 89.9 mph, down from its yearlong average of 90.9 mph.

In his previous start against the Marlins, Suárez overcame the dip in velocity and what manager Rob Thomson called “a bit of a dead arm” with sharp command. He wasn’t able to replicate that on Tuesday, and allowed a career-high 12 hits to the Rays.

“The velo was up a little bit from the last time, but the command wasn’t as good, and he didn’t have his best changeup, so he sort of became one-dimensional,” Thomson said. “And when he’s just fastball, curveball, and he’s not commanding his pitches as well as he normally does, he can get into some trouble.”

Suárez was removed after 5⅓ innings and 88 pitches, his highest pitch count since his injury. He only recorded two strikeouts, his fewest in a game since June 30.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber sets major league record with 14th leadoff homer, but leaves game with elbow pain

Kyle Schwarber gave the Phillies an early lead with his 14th leadoff homer of the season, which set a MLB record. The achievement was overshadowed, however, when Schwarber was removed from the game in the fourth inning with elbow discomfort. Thomson called him day-to-day.

Tanner Banks pitched the ninth. He loaded the bases with two walks and a single, but a sliding catch from Stevenson in center field stranded all three runners.