Yasiel Puig, David Bell suspended for actions during brawl with Pirates

You may remember Sunday’s scuffle between the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates, one that was spawned by Pirates pitcher Chris Archer throwing a 95 mph heater behind Reds hitter Derek Dietrich. Dietrich had previously honked a 440 foot meatball into the Allegheny River off Archer, and apparently that was enough to piss off Archer - or Pirates manager Clint Hurdle - and the retaliation was the attempted beaning.

Aside from the crap that is beanball, what was particularly annoying was that home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg immediately halted play and issued warnings to both teams, effectively putting a clamp down on Cincinnati pitching’s ability to pitch inside without fear despite them not having done any damn dastardly thing all game. That irked Reds manager David Bell in particular, and he came roaring out of the dugout to protest that decision. The rest of the Reds bench, though, came roaring out because of Archer’s crap decision to throw at Dietrich, and a huff then ensued.

No one was more amped to stand up for his teammates than Yasiel Puig, of course.

Puig, Bell, and various others - not Archer, somehow - all got tossed for their actions, and the suspensions were levied by the MLB Commissioner’s office earlier today. Two games for Puig, one for Bell, and *five for Archer.

Bell will reportedly serve his suspension tonight, though since Puig is still in the starting lineup for tonight’s game, I’m guessing he’s in the process of appealing. [UPDATE: tonight’s lineup was announced about five minutes before the suspensions and originally had Puig in it, but The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans is now reporting Puig will not appeal and will begin serving his suspension today.]

As for Archer, well, that’s effectively not even a suspension, since as a starting pitcher he’ll be set for four days of rest in between starts anyway. The Pirates will merely shuffle their rotation, making this nothing more than a fine - and that makes it all a pretty farcical, crap penalty from MLB. Not to mention that there’s no suspension for notorious beanball maestro Clint Hurdle, who has managed a team hell-bent on plunking hitters for damn near a decade.

This is all dumb. This is all so, so dumb.