CINCINNATI — As you enter the visitors’ clubhouse at Great American Ball Park, there’s a gigantic column straight ahead. Walk in staring at your phone, and you might endure a hugely embarrassing moment. At the top are a couple of mounted flat-screen TVs, typically airing ESPN or MLB Network.
Late Tuesday night, after one of the more bizarre Pirates games in recent memory, dozens of eyes were focused on those screens, players, coaches and team personnel together watching highlights of an all-out brawl with the Reds and reliving an 11-4 victory none of them will soon forget.
Amir Garrett went at the Pirates all alone, Yasiel Puig still came to his defense after being traded to Cleveland 🤭
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 31, 2019
Madness in Cincinnati
(via @FOXSportsOH)pic.twitter.com/vqhNq9S2Ww
Huge brawl: pic.twitter.com/3CQHJamFW9
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) July 31, 2019
For a team that had lost nine straight coming in, it was a strange moment of togetherness, forged under the craziest of circumstances — purpose pitches, a heap of ejections, the opposing pitcher snapping and suddenly charging the Pirates dugout, even a player who had been traded still in the game and playing a role in the fight.
“To have a little mix-up like that late in the game, that fires everybody up in here more than anything,” Joe Musgrove said. “Hopefully we can take this game [Tuesday] and build on it [Wednesday] and use some of the emotion and some of the adrenaline that got sparked up to spark us toward some wins.”
Entering this having lost 15 of 17 out of the All-Star break, enough to set fire to their season, many might’ve expected this game against two teams miles from the postseason to be a bit of a snoozefest. Or a lot of one, really. It turned out to be anything but that.
The starting point
Amir Garrett set off the eventual melee, although Tuesday’s chapter of the dustup — there are seasons worth of history between these teams — started during a seventh-inning at-bat involving Keone Kela and Derek Dietrich.
Kela threw up and in. Dietrich, naturally, took exception. After Kela struck out Dietrich, he mouthed a few words, further incensing the Reds.
“I’m going to tell you the truth,” Kela said. “The reason I went up and in was strictly, one, to show my intent with my pitch and to pretty much let Dietrich know that I didn’t necessarily agree with the way things went down.”
Presumably Kela was talking about earlier this season, when Chris Archer threw behind Dietrich after he stared at one of his home runs, something that caused an April incident between these teams. Or the couple of homers that Dietrich admired in a late May series for which Kela was hurt.
“Of course, people could say it was overdue,” Kela said. “At the end of the day, this is baseball. I have to protect my teammates, and I have to do what I feel is right. Not only that, you have to pitch in. That’s part of this game. The day that we’re not allowed to pitch in is the day that the game of baseball forever changes. I was just doing my part. It is what it is”
The incident continued, as the Reds took the field for the top of the eighth and Joey Votto ventured across the diamond and started yelling into the Pirates dugout, livid at what Kela had done.
In the bottom of the eighth, Reds manager David Bell all of a sudden came sprinting onto the field and stopped at home plate like Cosmo Kramer entering Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment, and was ejected for the eighth time this season.
Then in the ninth, former Pirate Jared Hughes plunked Starling Marte in the butt, an obvious form of retribution for Kela throwing at Dietrich’s head.
“It just continued to escalate,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.
Did it ever.
‘Looking to fight’
Garrett came on to relieve Hughes and had some sort of beef with Josh Bell. Nobody on the Pirates could understand what set Garrett off, but it was clear he was not the least bit happy.
“The first thing he did when he came onto the mound was look at JB and say, ‘[Bleep] you.’ ” Williams explained. “There’s no denying that. We have video. He came out, looked at JB and said, ‘[Bleep] you.’ If he saw one of us say that to one of his guys, I’m sure he’d stand up for his team.”
So Williams started jawing back at Garrett, letting him know his feelings. It looked for a second like Garrett was content to focus on pitching, though before delivering a pitch to Jacob Stallings, Garrett suddenly sprinted toward the Pirates dugout and tried to throw a left-handed punch at Williams.
“It seems like every time Amir gets on the field, he's looking to fight, not looking to play baseball,” Musgrove said. “It was extremely uncalled for. The way he went about it, I think, was extremely wrong. I don’t really have a whole lot to say on it other than that. Guy comes at you, you’ve got to stand your ground.”
The Pirates, to their credit, did.
David Bell went after Clint Hurdle, who was celebrating his 62nd birthday, and hitting coach Rick Eckstein wound up tackling Bell. Head strength and conditioning coach Jim Malone was right in the middle of everything, as was interpreter and coordinator of cultural initiatives Mike Gonzalez, among many others.
In the clubhouse, Kela was still in his shower shoes and workout clothes. He quickly put on a pair of spikes, and he and Musgrove rejoined their teammates.
“We stood up for ourselves,” Kyle Crick said. “We did everything we possibly could to take the stand. We met them halfway. Someone charging your dugout is a different story than a couple people getting beaned and then you fight. Something like that happens, MLB is going to have to take a look at it.”
The Puig factor
For a moment anyway, it looked like the fracas had died. Players were spent. Many of them had returned to their respective sides of the field. A few pitchers started trotting out to the bullpen.
That’s when Yasiel Puig, of all people, stoked the flame. See, Puig wasn’t even supposed to be there or in the game at all, really. A couple innings earlier, a trade report broke that Puig was property of the Cleveland Indians.
Yet for whatever reason, he never left the field.
Puig started pushing and shoving once again. He charged at Crick. Elias Diaz put Puig in a bear hug. Eventually, order was restored.
“Just a lot of chirping going on,” Corey Dickerson said. “Wound up turning into a little more — the show everybody got to see. When you’re not part of it, it kind of catches you off-guard. You just have to protect your guys. There’s two sides of it always. It’s one of the best ones I’ve seen.”
Happy birthday
Figure this isn’t a birthday Hurdle will soon forget. In addition to seeing Bell come right for him, Hurdle got swallowed up in the mass of bodies and wound up getting knocked to the ground.
Hurdle got up quickly, although it didn’t seem to sit well with other members of the Pirates.
“I’ve been swallowed up before, but it’s been a long time,” Hurdle said. “I’ve got two fake hips. I don’t have a solid foundation. I’ve been down on the ground before. And I’ve gotten back up.”
Then Hurdle made a bit of a joke.
“I think the last time I ended up in a fight might’ve been in a bar somewhere way back in my drinking days,” Hurdle said. “We won a game. There are parts you wish didn’t happen. We’ve got to figure it out and play [Wednesday].”
The game
Dickerson had a huge night with two home runs and five RBIs, and the Pirates snapped a nine-game losing streak.
With three hits, Dickerson is now hitting .336 (38-for-113) with 23 RBIs in 39 games since coming off the injured list on June 8 because of a right posterior shoulder strain.
Dickerson’s first home run came in the fifth inning, on a full-count changeup that the Pirates outfielder hammered out to center field. His second homer came on a similar pitch, also an elevated changeup, and Dickerson put almost the exact same swing on it.
In 14 career games played at Great American Ball Park, Dickerson is hitting 25 for 58 (.431) with six doubles, nine home runs and 18 RBIs. Tuesday was his third multi-homer game here and his 13th straight game reaching base safely.
“It’s nice to get back out there with my teammates playing the game that we all love and competing,” Dickerson said.
Musgrove gave the Pirates a quality start, Kela continued to throw well in relief, and Jose Osuna hit a three-run, pinch-hit homer, one Crick attributed to getting Garrett so mad in the first place.
Tuesday’s win has been a long time in the making for the Pirates, who improved to 47-60 despite flirting with their first 10-game losing streak since 2011.
Here’s guessing they’ll always remember how they avoided it, even if everyone wasn’t proud of the shenanigans that ensued.
“Did we all handle the situation correctly? Obviously not from both sides we didn’t,” Williams said. “This has been a lot of built-up frustration over the years. … You’re going to want to defend your teammates. You go to battle with your boys. No one likes it when their teammates gets showed up.
“We were in the wrong in the beginning of the game? Of course. Were they in the wrong retaliating? Maybe not. The unwritten rules are so gray. But how it ended up today was extremely unfortunate. It’s not good for baseball. It’s not good for fans. It’s not good for anybody. It’s just unfortunate how that happened.
“But when you get 50 alpha males on the field, stuff happens. It was a huge win for us, regardless of that.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: July 31, 2019, 2:56 a.m.
Updated: July 31, 2019, 1:28 p.m.
