Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds Suspensions: Chris Archer Gets Five Games, Yasiel Puig Gets Two

In the aftermath of baseball’s first big bench-clearing brawl of the 2019 season, one between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds, Major League Baseball officially handed down suspensions on Tuesday.

Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds Suspensions

Chris Archer Gets Five Games, Yasiel Puig Gets Two

The two recipients of said suspensions were Pirates starting pitcher Chris Archer, for intentionally throwing at Reds 1B Derek Dietrich, and Reds RF Yasiel Puig for his post-pitch antics. Archer was slapped with a five-game suspension while Puig was dished a two-game suspension. Finally, Reds manager David Bell also received a one-game suspension.

Archer has yet to make a decision as to whether he will appeal the five-game suspension. However, both Puig and Bell will go through with their suspensions. Puig has elected not to appeal, while Bell is unable to even begin the appeal process. By rule, managers may not appeal suspensions of any kind.

The Incident

During the 7-5 victory for Pittsburgh over Cincinnati, Dietrich blasted his third home run of the season into the Allegheny River and admired it all the way. That apparently did not sit well with Archer, who fired a 93-mile-per-hour fastball right behind the first-year Red on the first pitch of his next at-bat. While Dietrich himself proceeded with no action towards Archer, manager David Bell did come out of the dugout with what appeared to be aggressive intent, something he refuted, as stated in an MLB.com article by Mark Sheldon.

“I actually went out there with every intention to avoid that. My intention was to get him ejected so we could move on to the rest of the game,” he said. “That to me was the only thing that could have been done to make that situation right.”

Effects of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds Suspensions

In all reality, while player suspensions are negative as a whole, the suspension to Puig may not be as devastating as others. The Reds will temporarily be without the services of a declining Puig, currently wielding a batting average of just .133 on a mere 4-of-30 performance from the plate. Puig has just three runs batted in while having earned only one extra-base hit through 32 plate appearances.

Archer may be the biggest loss, albeit temporarily, of all the suspensions. Through 11 innings pitched on the season, Archer has given up just seven hits and three earned runs while boasting a WHIP of merely 1.091.

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