Offense breaks out after brawl as Pirates finish sweep of Reds

In any case, home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg judged Archer was sending a message to Dietrich in the fourth inning and immediately issued a warning.

It didn’t take long for tempers to flare and players from both dugouts and bullpens to race onto the field.

Among them was Vazquez, the Pirates closer who was watching the game in the clubhouse. He said he sensed trouble in the fourth inning the minute Dietrich stepped into the batter’s box.

“I knew something was going to happen,” he said. “I have to be ready. I was just trying to calm everybody down.”

In the end, Vazquez and Pirates relief pitcher Keone Kela were ejected, along with Reds manager David Bell, right fielder Yasiel Puig and reliever Amir Garrett.

Vazquez said he wasn’t sure why he was ejected. He sensed and Pirates manager Clint Hurdle was told it was because he was not wearing his game jersey when he ran onto the field.

“I didn’t even throw a punch,” Vazquez said.

But he was certain Dietrich broke an unwritten baseball rule that a batter doesn’t embarrass a pitcher by watching the ball sail beyond the bleachers.

“You do something like that, you’re going to pay for it,” Vazquez said. “We’re trying to play the game like we have to. Respect the game. (Reds veteran Joey Votto) can do it because he’s been here a long time, but a guy like that, he hasn’t earned the right to do stuff like that.

“I think it was a little too much. Probably just look at it and start running. Don’t stay and start walking. We all knew it was going to be far, but you’re not going to wait until the ball hits the ground and then start walking. You’re not supposed to do that.”

Archer denied intent, saying he “missed his spot.”

Still, Bell was angry.

“Any time another team or another player is intentionally trying to hurt one of our players, that’s the problem. It’s that simple,” he told MLB.com. “It’s unacceptable, and we’ll always stick up for our players no matter what.”

Kela also didn’t throw a punch, but he wasn’t an quiet bystander, either.

“I just made sure to get in there and let my voice be known,” he said. “You disrupt one of those rules, then you have to be dealt with. The one thing I’m grateful for is I won’t get any time in jail for it.”

The bigger picture, though, was how the Pirates responded to the 10-minute altercation.

First, Archer finished the at-bat by striking out Dietrich, who homered for a second time in the eighth inning against Nick Kingham.

Then, Josh Bell led off the Pirates’ fourth with a 474-foot homer that was the fourth-longest in the 19-year history of PNC Park. He said it was the farthest he’s hit a baseball in his life.

“There will be number of people jumping on his train now,” Hurdle said of Bell. “That ball was clobbered, just absolutely clobbered. You don’t see many of those.”

The Pirates trailed 3-2 when the melee ensued but scored two in the fourth and three more in the fifth to build a 7-3 lead. Overall, the Pirates collected 12 hits, including a home run by Adam Frazier in the first inning, three hits by Melky Cabrera and two each by Bell and Jason Martin.

“We took that situation and flipped it. It shows who we can be as a unit and under pressure what we can do collectively,” said Kela, who wasn’t scheduled to pitch, anyway, after appearing in five of the previous seven games. “I think moving forward it’s going to be a good spark for us.”

Hurdle, 61, said he wished he was younger so he could have been more help to his players during the confrontation. He didn’t argue when his two best relief pitches were ejected.

“We had talked to (Archer) about going back to our pitching plan, pitching some guys tight,” Hurdle said. “Trying to get some uncomfortable at-bats, and obviously some things escalated. Both of them were very aggressive, as were Garrett and Puig.”

Of Archer, Hurdle said, “He got in a better place after the on-field altercation.”

Archer (1-0) struggled early but handed a four-run lead to his bullpen after throwing 100 pitches in six innings and striking out seven, allowing five hits and two walks.

With Vazquez unavailable, Rich Rodriguez, who had allowed two home runs in two previous outings, earned his first major league save.

“We gave him a nice welcoming into the shower,” Kela said. “Doused him with all different type of things: he got mustard, ketchup, shaving cream and Listerine. It was fun.”

Rodriguez said he felt shampoo, toothpaste and Sprite.

The game was the sixth between the Pirates and Reds. The Pirates won five.

They’ll meet 12 more times this season, but Josh Bell is not worried about any carryover.

“Not concern. It’s excitement,” he said. “This is what baseball is about. The Reds are a team that gave us problems last year. Set that standard early. Let them know what we’re about.”