Pirates' Archer denies intentionally throwing at Reds' Dietrich

Chris Archer says he wasn't throwing at anybody. The Cincinnati Reds beg to differ.

Archer's fastball that sailed behind Derek Dietrich two innings after the second baseman admired a long home run sparked a rather fiery benches-clearing spat between the Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday. No punches were thrown in the melee, though five participants, including Cincinnati's Yasiel Puig, were ejected.

Following the Pirates' 7-5 win, Archer adamantly denied that he threw at Dietrich intentionally, saying he "missed (his) spot" and "yanked" a fastball behind the hitter, according to Mike Asti of PGH Sports Live.

But the Reds weren't buying what Archer was trying to sell them.

"Any time another team or another player is intentionally trying to hurt one of our players, that's the problem. It's that simple," Reds manager David Bell - one of those tossed in the fracas - said, according to Adam Berry and Jake Crouse of MLB.com. "It's unacceptable, and we'll always stick up for our players no matter what."

Dietrich wasn't sure that he did anything to warrant the kind of reaction he received from Pittsburgh.

"I didn't say anything," Dietrich said, according to Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. "I didn't flip my bat. Of course, I looked at the ball, but other than that, nothing else out of my end.

"People see it differently. Hitters, position players, they think it's a good swing. Most pitchers see it as, 'Oh, he's trying to show me up.' I don’t know where the game's going these days."

Pirates reliever Felipe Vazquez, one of two Bucs players ejected, felt Dietrich's actions were disrespectful.

"(Dietrich) shouldn't have done that," Vazquez told Nightengale. "That's against the principles. If you do something like that you're going to pay for it. We're trying to play the game like we have to, respect the game. That at-bat, he didn’t do it."

Both Archer and Dietrich remained in the game, and Archer struck him out in the fourth and sixth innings. However, in the eighth, Dietrich crushed another long homer that landed in the Allegheny River and he once again appeared to admire his shot.

The Reds and Pirates meet next in a doubleheader on May 27 in Cincinnati.