PITTSBURGH PIRATES

Announcer: Pirates pitcher Chris Archer used pine tar on jersey for certain pitches

Dave Clark
Cincinnati Enquirer

Sunday's Reds-Pirates game in Pittsburgh was fairly eventful, so it may have been lost to some extent in all of the excitement that broadcaster Chris Welsh mentioned several times during the FOX Sports Ohio broadcast that Pirates starting pitcher Chris Archer's jersey had a dark substance in the waistline that appeared to be pine tar.

"You know it's kind of interesting. You be the judge at home. Chris Archer, I believe, has got some kind of foreign substance. Looks to me like pine tar. Right inside the belt area right there. Reaches down — pitchers do this — they need to get a grip on the ball. ... And then later we got a shot where his shirt is pulled up a little bit more and you can really see some dark substance on his jersey. Which is poor planning on Archer's part," Welsh said during the 7th inning of the Pirates' win, several innings after the benches-clearing incident sparked by Archer's pitch behind the Reds' Derek Dietrich.

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Chris Archer (24) delivers a pitch against the Cincinnati Reds during the first inning at PNC Park on April 7.

"You know, and I'll say this Thom, and this is just my opinion," Welsh continued. "I think pitchers ought to be able to have something sticky so that they can get a good grip on the ball. I don't know why they make pine tar illegal. Let's do something to the baseballs because I hear more and more pitchers all the time talk about how slick they are and you can't get a good feel. So why make a guy do that? When it'd be just simple to even change the rule or rub up the balls in a different fashion. But as long as a rule is a rule, you can't apply a foreign substance to the ball. And that — it appears to me — is what Chris Archer was doing today. ... But I mean of everything that's happened today ... on top of that all, we have a pitcher who's up there using a foreign substance and putting it on the baseball. So this game's got it all!"

"And you can take it to the bank it will be watched regularly in New York City later tonight or tomorrow morning," Thom Brennaman added.

"Well, and I think it will be watched by every other team. Because there are teams out watching every game. They're going to realize, alright, you know. I just think it's bad planning on the part of Archer," Welsh insisted. "I mean, I think there are other pitchers that are, you know, getting a good grip on the ball but they're not using something so blatantly obvious."

A few reactions from social media:

Social media also assessed whether Archer throwing behind Dietrich was warranted

Bill Baer of NBC Sports' Hardball Talk wrote Sunday that Archer should be suspended for much more than five or six games for his role in the incident.