Members of the Red Sox and the Mariners charge out on the field and exchange words but no blows after Seattle’s Jose Guillen and Sox reliever Brendan Donnelly rekindled an old grudge dating back to their days as teammates with the Anaheim Angels.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON — How best to spice up a late-inning, one-sided game? Why, the threat of an on-field brawl, of course.

The Red Sox were comfortably ahead of the Seattle Mariners, 14-1, in the eighth inning yesterday when former Anaheim Angels teammates Brendan Donnelly and Jose Guillen faced one another.

Some background: the two played with the Angels in 2004. Guillen was suspended and ultimately released by the Angels late in the season after a dugout confrontation with manager Mike Scioscia.

The following year, Guillen, then playing for Washington, told Nationals manager Frank Robinson that Donnelly had a habit of illegally loading up pitches with a foreign substance and advised Robinson to have Donnelly checked by umpires.

Sure enough, when Robinson followed through, Donnelly was found to have pine tar on his glove, warranting a 10-day suspension, later reduced on appeal to eight. There was no doubt that Guillen had blown the whistle.

Cut to yesterday: Guillen led off the eighth for the Mariners and Donnelly came in to pitch the for the Sox. Knowing their history, the Red Sox coaching staff had told Donnelly to forget the past and concentrate on getting three outs. The umpires, too, mindful of what had transpired, had warned both sides before the game.

Donnelly got the first out by striking out Guillen. But on his way back to the Seattle dugout, Guillen began jawing with Donnelly, then gestured with his bat as he began walking toward the reliever. Eager to defend himself, Donnelly threw down his glove and glasses and walked toward his ex-teammate.

Benches and dugouts quickly emptied before things went any further and Guillen was summarily ejected. So, too, was Donnelly when he plunked the next hitter — Seattle catcher Kenji Johjima — in the backside.

“It’s well documented that we have a history,” said Donnelly afterward. “Apparently, we don’t like each other. That’s fine. He struck out and he turned to me. I’m not sure what happened. I never had any thought of hitting him. I’m not going to take a personal grudge and make it a team grudge.

“I didn’t hit him. I was pitching to him. He struck out and he didn’t like that. I’m not exactly sure what set him off. He wanted to fight me. It looked like he had no good intent [in mind]; I don’t think he was asking where we were going to have dinner tonight.”

“This goes way back,” confirmed Guillen. “I caught him cheating once. He don’t play the game clean, the way it’s supposed to [be]. I don’t want him to do good against me. If you’re cheating, you’re cheating.

“When I was walking to the dugout, I looked around and saw him staring at me and saying something. I don’t like that. … Unfortunately, he keeps running his mouth like he’s going to hit me. If you’re running your mouth that you’re going to hit me, go ahead and do it.”

For his part, Donnelly said hitting Johjima was “unbelievably bad” timing and “a total accident. The umpire had to run me — I understand that.”

So is this over?

“If he wants to take care of his problem,” said Guillen, “the clubhouses are pretty close. He can just send one of the batboys to come get me outside and then we’ll take care of this as a man. That’s pretty much it.”

smcadam@projo.com