NEW YORK – Braves relief pitcher Jose Ramirez dropped his appeal of a three-game suspension for throwing a pitch near the head of Miami’s Jose Fernandez and began serving the suspension Wednesday.
He’ll be eligible to return Saturday for the third game of a four-game series against the Marlins that starts Thursday in Miami.
The suspension was announced Friday by Major League Baseball, two days after Ramirez threw a high-and-inside pitch that came close to but didn’t hit Marlins ace Fernandez in a Sept. 14 game in Atlanta. Ramirez appealed the suspension, pitched in games Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, then dropped the appeal Wednesday.
Fernandez believed Ramirez was intentionally throwing at him and stepped toward the mound before being held back by catcher Tyler Flowers. Both benches and bullpens cleared and the teams faced off near home plate in the seventh-inning incident, with players including Fernandez shouting at each other, but no punches thrown.
Ramirez was thrown out of the game immediately.
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Braves pitcher Julio Teheran had hit Martin Prado with a pitch in the sixth inning of that same game, and Fernandez hit Nick Markakis — who had homered in the second inning and nearly homered in the third — with a pitch with two out and none on in the sixth, which the Braves believed to be retaliatory.
During a four-game July series between the teams, Flowers was hit by pitches three times, one on the left hand that was diagnosed as fractured a week later. The Marlins’ A.J. Ramos was also hit in the hand by a pitch in the second game of that series.
Teheran is scheduled to face Teheran again Sunday in the series finale at Miami.