LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Washington Nationals pitcher Cade Cavalli and Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras were both suspended for seven games for their roles in a bench-clearing brawl, Major League Baseball said Thursday.

Nationals pitcher Mikles Mikolas was suspended for five games and Red Sox outfielder Nate Eaton was handed a three-game ban over the incident at Boston’s Fenway Park on Tuesday.

If the players don’t appeal, the suspensions were to begin on Friday.

The bust-up occurred in the bottom of the fourth inning of the Nationals’ 8-1 victory.

Contreras was struck out looking by Cavalli, with video showing Cavalli taunting him as he walked to the dugout saying “Sit down, boy. You heard me. You heard me.”

The benches and dugouts cleared, and Contreras had to be pulled away from the melee by Red Sox teammates, but not before trying to fling his helmet at Cavalli.

Cavalli initially downplayed his role in the incident, but on Wednesday apologized for the use of the world “boy,” which has a racist history in the United States.

Cavalli said there was no “ill intention behind that,” and Contreras, who is Venezuelan, declined to say when asked if thought there was a racial component to Cavalli’s comment.

But Contreras said after the game that he thought Cavalli, who was not ejected from the contest, started the scrap.

“He struck me on a good pitch, I was walking back to the dugout, and then he did what he did, and the rest was history,” Contreras said.

“He was, like, instigating and I snapped.”