Ramirez suspended three games for pitch near Fernandez’s head

Braves reliever Jose Ramirez was suspended Friday by Major League Baseball for three games and fined an undisclosed amount for “intentionally throwing a pitch in the head area” of Miami’s Jose Fernandez during Wednesday’s game.

Ramirez will appeal the suspension, which would have begun Friday night. He will be allowed to continue pitching until the appeal is heard next week.

He didn’t hit Fernandez with the seventh-inning pitch, but the Marlins ace 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 for a couple of minutes, with several players including Fernandez shouting at each other, but no punches thrown. Ramirez was thrown out of the game immediately.

Braves pitcher Julio Teheran hit Martin Prado with a pitch in the sixth inning 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.

The Braves and Marlins play another four-game series in Miami beginning Thursday.