“I was embarrassed by it,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after Tuesday’s 6-0 win over the Cardinals. A bizarre, early celebration from reliever Abner Uribe turned a great shutout into an awkward mess.

Instead of celebrating quietly, the 25-year-old reliever taunted the Cardinals’ dugout with a series of Triple-H like D-Generation X crotch chops. The crowd loved it, but it broke baseball’s unwritten rules, and Murphy was furious. The reliever later apologized before blaming the opposing dugout.

“Everyone here knows me and knows who I am, and knows I have a bit of a history of being emotional out there,” Uribe said, as shared by MLB insider Adam McCalvy. “I think first, I owe an apology to the Brewers, I owe an apology to my teammates, to my manager, and to all the bosses of the team. I understand that’s unacceptable, to go out there and react in a way like that.”

With the Brewers up 6-0 in the eighth inning, Uribe faced Alec Burleson with two outs and two runners on base. He threw an 87 mph sinker that was called a third strike, but looked like a narrow ball. Uribe immediately brought out three massive crotch chop gestures while facing the Cardinals’ dugout.

However, the Cardinals challenged the call, and the review showed the ball narrowly touched the bottom of the strike zone. The Cardinals’ inning ended, but it could have been disastrous for the Brewers. Uribe was standing with three balls, and if the challenge was retained, Burleson would have gotten a walk covering all bases.

Murphy admitted the risk and called out Uribe for his unnecessary actions.

“The thing that I think about is if that challenge got overturned, you’ve got to reset and go back out there and pitch,” Murphy explained to the reporters. “This is Major League Baseball. Guys can reset, boom, base hit, dumper, homer, and all of a sudden it’s 6-5. That’s unacceptable. I don’t know what got over him. I mean, he’s been an emotional guy. But that kind of thing, that’s just not how we do things, and I was embarrassed by it.”

Fans previously witnessed Uribe’s emotional side. Back in 2024, Uribe exchanged heated words with the Rays’ Jose Siri. Tensions quickly escalated into physical blows, resulting in both bullpens and benches clearing and Uribe being ejected from the game. With the Brewers currently leading the NL Central, Murphy expectedly didn’t want to lose the momentum.

“I love the kid. Believe me, I love the kid,” Murphy added. “There’s so much good in this kid. He’s been so great for us in so many ways, but that’s unacceptable. So, whatever’s going on, you can’t tolerate that. For his teammates, and for everything, it’s not going to be tolerated, that’s all there is to it.”

Uribe went strong last year for the Brewers, finishing the season with a 1.75 ERA, but this year, he is struggling with a 4.19 ERA. For the Brewers’ manager, Uribe’s focus thus needs to be on his numbers and not on bizarre antics. Fortunately, Uribe acknowledged his mistake, but also blamed the Cardinals’ manager for instigating the scene. Something that will keep on adding to the historical Cardinals-Brewers rivalry.

The Brewers-Cardinals rivalry just got a new flashpoint

Tensions were already brewing on Tuesday. In the 8th inning itself, Uribe threw a high-and-tight fastball near the Cardinals’ catcher Iván Herrera. That led to some brief exchanges between the two. However, after the game, Uribe blamed the Cardinals’ manager, Oliver Marmol.

“I don’t think it’s professional for their manager to be making signs towards our dugout saying that he’s going to be hitting guys,” Uribe said. “There was an event that occurred during the practice today, too, and I don’t think that was right. So, I have my teammates’ backs always.”

When asked about the accusation, Marmol claimed to know nothing about Uribe’s comments and refused to argue. “It looked like their team, and Murph was handling it on their side,” Marmol stated. “That’s their player. We’ll handle ours.”

Last year, tensions escalated between the Brewers and Cardinals. The game in June was barraged with collisions and hit-by-pitches. The rivalry emerged even before they both shared a division. The two franchises met in the 1982 Fall Classic, famously dubbed the “Suds Series.” The Cardinals ultimately defeated “Harvey’s Wallbangers” in seven games.

Young bloods like Uribe are just carrying forward the rivalry. For the Brewers’ manager, though, results matter above all.