ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays got into a brief skirmish after a pickoff play at second base Saturday night.
The benches and bullpens emptied in the fourth inning after the play, which also resulted in a manager's replay challenge.
Tampa Bay's Asdrubal Cabrera made a headfirst dive back to the bag, and second baseman Adam Rosales appeared to block him.
It appeared Rosales' elbow might have made contact with Cabrera. Miffed, Cabrera used his forearm to push away Rosales.
"A little bit of an awkward play," Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
The pair talked amicably before played resumed.
"Obviously I don't want to inflict pain on anybody," Rosales said. "I let him know it was not my intention to hurt him."
Texas challenged the safe call, which was confirmed after 3½ minutes.
"I trust our video people, and they felt that somewhere in there he was off the bag and we made the tag," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "[Umpire] Dana [Demuth] explained the tag might have been applied after timeout had been called."
Andrew Bellatti, making his major league debut after serving time in jail as a teenager, earned the win in a 7-2 Rays victory.