Pittsburgh Pirates wrap up spring at McKechnie Field with slugfest, brawl

BRADENTON -- The Pirates saved their most exciting Grapefruit League game at McKechnie Field for last.

Pittsburgh bid farewell to Bradenton on Monday with 18 runs, six homers, a spring training brawl against the in-state rival Phillies and a pair of ejections

"Sometimes springs get long and we don't communicate as well as we should," said manager Clint Hurdle, who was ejected during the bottom of the sixth inning for arguing balls and strikes. "It gets late in the spring and guys' patience levels might be a little bit shorter than others. We just need to move past it."

The "brawl," which provided most of the intrigue in the Pirates' 18-4 win, appeared to stem from Sean Rodriguez's at-bat in the fourth inning. After Philadelphia's Kevin Slowey quick-pitched Rodriguez, the utility player exchanged words with the relief pitcher and home plate umpire Chad Fairchild.

Midway through the fifth inning, tempers finally reached a boil.

Rodriguez and Slowey yelled at each other again when they crossed paths and finally the dugouts emptied. Relief pitchers came pouring out of the bullpen -- including Jared Hughes, whose entrance into the fray came about 20 seconds late for any action. Catcher Francisco Cervelli pulled Rodriguez out of a near fight with a friendly headlock.

"I'm not gonna comment on that at all," Rodriguez said after the game.

After the dust settled with no punches thrown, both teams' third-base coaches

-- Juan Samuel for the Phillies and Rick Sofield for Pittsburgh -- were ejected and the game never again escalated to a fever pitch. These two teams, by the way, play a two-game exhibition series in Philadelphia on Friday and Saturday.

Sofield also declined to comment after the game.

Maybe it was fitting that this was the game Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin decided to attend.

"How about it?" Hurdle said. "Crazy."

Hurdle's later ejection, he insists, wasn't related to the earlier benches-clearing incident. He felt the strike zone for outfielder Andrew Lambo was low. With Lambo fighting to ensure himself a spot on the roster, Hurdle wanted to make sure Fairchild knew his thoughts.

Fairchild threw Hurdle out and the manager came out for a more extended conversation with the ump. After an extended chat, Hurdle took a slow walk out to right field, repeatedly looking over his shoulder as he walked to the McKechnie clubhouse.

"I can't run off," Hurdle said. "Obviously he was gonna wait until I got off, it seemed like, so I did the best I could with what I had." And if those aren't the sort of fireworks a fan was looking during the final home game of the year, the Pirates provided some on the field, too.

With six home runs, including two by Pedro Alvarez -- one of which was a grand slam -- Pittsburgh more than doubled its best offensive outing of the Grapefruit League season -- and it was largely rendered to a footnote to a wild finale.

Alvarez's breakthrough was particularly uplifting for the Pirates. The corner infielder has had a strong spring and is tied for the team lead with four home runs. After a season that saw him bat just .231 with 18 homers, he's confident heading into the regular season.

"You want the work you put in to have a positive end result," Alvarez said. "You try to carry those good feelings into the season."

That's the sort of stuff Hurdle wants to focus on. He had to watch Alvarez's grand slam and Pedro Florimon's sixth-inning homer from his office because he was ejected, but at-bats like those were his biggest takeaway from the day.

With only five games left before Opening Day, he's glad to see his players reap the rewards from the work, even if the altercation gave them something new to work on.

"It's over. I'm not here to be judge or jury or anything," Hurdle said. "We'll talk about it internally, how we can do a better job of not letting it happen again or what we're gonna do when it does happen again."

This story was originally published March 31, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Pittsburgh Pirates wrap up spring at McKechnie Field with slugfest, brawl."