By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Alfredo Aceves has a few welts on the right side of his head, the result of the brawl between Mexico and Canada in the World Baseball Classic on Saturday. But he worked out with the Red Sox on Monday and is ready to pitch.

Aceves was not on the field when the fight started. But he was thrown to the ground by Canada's Tyson Gillies at one point later took a series of punches to his head while being held down by some other Canadian players.

Aceves still isn't sure how he became the target.

"It's a team, you know?" he said. "It's part of the game."

As for Gillies, Aceves doesn't know him and isn't sure why they started fighting.

"What can I say? It didn't surprise me. He threw me to the floor. I stood up and I reacted, too," Aceves said. "I didn't do nothing to him. I was just calming [others] down. The fighting was with the pitcher and the hitter. I was saying, 'Calm down, man. Calm down. Come on. Calm down.' He just grabbed me and threw me on the floor.

"I was like, 'I want to throw you on the floor.' Then when I jumped in to this guy, I got seven guys against me."

Aceves described what was a chaotic scene at that point.

"You’re locked in. You’re just trying to defend and knock them out. That’s it. We were trying to [defend] ourselves. We didn’t do nothing to him. He just threw me," he said.

Aceves was asked whether he was concerned about injury.

"You ever fight before? Now the question to you, would you do the same thing?" he said.

Aceves said he feels fine. He last pitched on Thursday and threw on flat ground today. he is expected to pitch for the Red Sox later this week.