NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Tampa Bay Devil Rays outfielder Gerald Williams was suspended five games for his role in an ugly brawl with the Boston Red Sox on August 29. Standing up for Williams will cost three teammates and manager Larry Rothschild three games apiece.

Williams was suspended for charging the mound and inciting a benches-clearing incident as well as for returning to the dugout after being ejected.

Pitchers Dave Eiland, Tony Fiore and Cory Lidle were suspended three games apiece for intentionally throwing at batters after a warning had been issued. Rothschild was suspended for three games for failing to prevent his players' wrongful conduct and for making inappropriate comments during and after the game.

Lidle will begin serving his suspension tonight at Cleveland, while Rothschild will sit beginning Wednesday. All other suspensions will not be served until appeals are heard.

Williams was struck in the wrist on a 1-2 pitch from Boston's Pedro Martinez. After starting slowly toward first base, Williams turned and stared at Martinez, then rushed the mound. They began fighting and players from both benches ran onto the field, resulting in a brawl.

After the umpires restored order, Williams and Rothschild were ejected but Martinez was allowed to stay in the game. He took a no-hitter into the ninth, only to lose it when John Flaherty led off with a single.

After the game, Rothschild accused Martinez of deliberately throwing at Williams.

"Obviously, we felt that he was," Rothschild said at the time. "The guy has 27 walks and 14 hit batsmen. I got to wonder about it."

There was another bench-clearing incident in the seventh, when Lidle and Fiore were ejected for throwing at Boston's Brian Daubach in retaliation.

In all, eight Devil Rays players and coaches were ejected.

Fiore immediately was tossed and Tampa Bay coaches Bill Russell and Jose Cardenal also were ejected. Earlier, Eiland had been ejected for hitting Boston's Nomar Garciaparra with a pitch.

"We thought that Daubach was throwing cheap shots in the pile and you have to protect your players," Rothschild. "You are not going to let that happen and the only problem was that our pitchers kept missing the guy."