5:03pm: Angels righty Noe Ramirez has also been suspended for a trio of contests after also being deemed to have thrown at the head of a hitter. In his case, he went after Jake Marisnick in apparent retribution for the outfielder’s own recent actions, which resulted in an injury to Halos catcher Jonathan Lucroy and a two-game ban for Marisnick.
Halos skipper Brad Ausmus also took a one-game ban, which he’ll serve tonight. Ramirez will appeal the suspension, he tells reporters including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (via Twitter).
4:44pm: Major League Baseball has announced a three-game suspension for Phillies righty Hector Neris. He was deemed to have thrown intentionally at Dodgers infielder David Freese.
Here’s video of the incident. MLB cited the fact that the pitch was thrown “in the area of the head” of the hitter in explaining its decision.
Neris, the Phils’ closer, will appeal the suspension, according to Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter). If he loses or abandons the appeal, the punishment will take him out of the ninth inning for a brief stretch. Some might say that poor performance had already threatened such a move.
It was a brutal showing for Neris last night, as he coughed up three-run bomb to blow his fourth save. All of those have come since June 14th, with three coming since June 27th alone. Neris had a 1.88 ERA in mid-June; that has ballooned to 4.08. He evidently decided to take out his frustration on Freese, who strode to the plate after the ill-fated pitch.