Boston’s Coco Crisp, left, and Tampa Bay pitcher James Shields were the primary combatants in the melee at Fenway Park on Thursday.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON — A day after Thursday’s melee between the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays, Major League Baseball decided there was plenty of blame to go around, suspending seven players on the two teams for a total of 38 games.

But in the wave of suspensions and accompanying fines, some were penalized too lightly and others not at all.

It’s possible that the umpiring crew from Thursday night was reprimanded, though such actions aren’t made public. If they weren’t told of their culpability for what transpired, they should have been.

Thursday’s troubles, of course, began Wednesday night when Crisp took umbrage at Jason Bartlett’s decision to block the second-base bag with his knee, resulting in a sprained thumb.

Crisp took out his frustration several innings later when he went hard into second baseman Akinowi Iwamura, throwing a forearm and wiping out the infielder with his slide.

When tensions escalated a half-inning later — Crisp and Tampa manager Joe Maddon engaged in a long-distance shouting match between the mound and the Red Sox dugout — it should have been obvious that things weren’t settled.

But Jeff Kellogg, the acting crew chief in the absence of Rick Reed, chose not to warn the two teams prior to the series finale.

That was an abdication of duty on Kellogg’s part. If MLB felt compelled enough to warn the Rays and Yankees before their first meeting of the year, weeks after the two brawled in a Grapefruit League contest, why wouldn’t they see the same need to two teams playing some 20 hours later.

It was clear from the post-game comments from Maddon and Crisp that hard feelings remained on both sides. Almost anyone could anticipate that there would be some carryover Thursday night; everyone, that is, except the umpiring crew.

In effect, the umpires invited the players to implement their own brand of frontier justice. What resulted was the second-inning mayhem, during which all sides were fortunate no injuries were suffered.

But if the umpires were guilty of inaction, then Crisp clearly overreacted.

When James Shields plunked Crisp on the leg in the second inning, he was sending the Rays’ message in a relatively benign way. Had Shields thrown the pitch up near Crisp’s head, the outfielder might have been justified in charging the mound.

Instead, Shields kept the pitch below Crisp’s waist. Crisp reacted as though an errant pitch had zipped past his ear. The Tampa pitcher later said that Crisp’s reaction was “bush league.”

“I believe that,” Crisp said yesterday. “I will agree with him. It’s true. But what Bartlett did was bush league, and he’s done it before. After he dropped the knee on me (Wednesday) I said, ‘OK. You want to play dirty?’ Especially with me sliding headfirst and going in as hard as I can sliding headfirst. When you put your knee down like that, you’re blocking the plate like a catcher, so you should be taken out like a catcher. That’s how I feel. You can injure and end someone’s career by doing that.

“He throws hard and he didn’t try to throw it up near my head. He did it the right way. There’s no hard feelings, but if he lost respect for me, then so be it. I have no loss of respect for anybody over there, even though some people were pulling my hair. I guess all is fair when you’re at the bottom of the pile.”

Crisp — and the Red Sox — were lucky that none of their players were pile-drived into the ground, leading to a separated shoulder.

Before Thursday’s game, Crisp was adamant that any retaliation for Bartlett’s play not involve his teammates. But by charging the mound as he did, Crisp very much involved the rest of his teammates, coaching staff and manager Terry Francona.

They weren’t about to let Crisp go after Shields by himself and their support was both admirable and expected.

Finally, there’s the issue of suspensions for starting pitchers.

Lester’s five-game suspension is essentially irrelevant, since with an off-day Monday, he can start Thursday, and in effect, not miss an outing. If MLB wants its disciplinary measures to have some teeth, then it has to suspend starting pitchers for a minimum of six or seven games.

Anything less, and the sport risks having its punishment rendered meaningless.

smcadam@projo.com