Devil of a time

If the combustible day needed an exclamation point, Jay Payton, who replaced the ejected Trot Nixon, provided one with a grand slam in the eighth inning off Rob Bell. One out later, David Ortiz hit another mammoth shot, off the "C" ring catwalk.

"I'll take that," Payton said. "I thanked Trot for getting ejected."

Manager Terry Francona called a meeting before yesterday's game for what he called some "housekeeping," although he wouldn't elaborate.

Francona was ejected along with Nixon and Bronson Arroyo in the bench-clearing incidents in the seventh inning. The Devil Rays lost manager Lou Piniella, pitcher Dewon Brazelton (who did not pitch yesterday but tangled with Nixon), and Lance Carter.

The fireworks began when Carter threw high and behind Ramirez with one out in the seventh. That was apparently in retaliation for Arroyo hitting Aubrey Huff with a pitch in the sixth with two outs. After a warning was issued to both benches, Ramirez answered with a home run to left field.

"I have no comment," Ramirez said to reporters.

Kevin Millar, whose legs are black and blue from being hit with pitches and fouling a ball off his foot in the series, said, "[Carter] woke up the baby. Sometimes Manny takes nap."

Carter then threw behind Ortiz's head on a 1-and-2 pitch. When Ortiz tried to rush the mound (he was restrained) and the teams ran onto the field, Nixon and Brazelton got into it verbally, and in the ensuing scuffle Nixon claimed Brazelton poked him in the eye.

Umpiring crew chief Rick Reed said, "Nixon and Brazelton were escalating the situation. In fact, Nixon was asked a couple of times to leave the area. He continued to make aggressive comments. Brazelton was out of control also."

Reed also said he didn't believe there was anything "malicious" in the first two games that would have been an indication of what happened. He also said he was not tipped off to any potential bad blood between the teams, although they have a history.

After a nine-minute delay, the players returned to their places and the inning continued.

"You don't want guys missing time because someone is being stupid out there," Ortiz said. "When someone throws at your head, my game mentally changes. That's dangerous. They've been playing the [hitting batters] game three days here. I don't play that. It was crazy out there."