Cincinnati Reds outfielder Yasiel Puig was suspended two games Tuesday by Major League Baseball for his involvement in Sunday's benches-clearing brawl with the Pittsburgh Pirates, which began after Chris Archer threw behind Derek Dietrich.

Puig says he didn't appeal the decision because he wanted to avoid a lengthy and fruitless phone conversation with MLB's chief baseball officer, Joe Torre.

"I don't want to talk to Joe Torre again because he's going to have his point, I'm going to have my point, and he thinks everything is explained for what he does," Puig said, according to Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. "I'm not going to do nothing about that. He suspends me two-to-three days. He's the boss. We only take the days because we're going to be on the phone for two hours and nothing is going to work."

If anyone knows the process of appealing a suspension, it would be Puig. The 28-year-old was involved in a similar fracas with then-San Francisco Giants catcher Nick Hundley in August 2018 and received an identical two-game suspension after losing an appeal.

The outspoken Reds slugger also explained that he didn't agree with the length of Archer's suspension. The pitcher received a five-game ban, but will likely miss just one turn in the rotation.

"All the time we're going to be suspended, or fined or things like that, more than pitchers," Puig explained. "The pitcher is going to be suspended five days, that's not costing him nothing because no matter what, he's going to rest for five days. It costs me two games and I can't help my team to win these games."

Reds manager David Bell, who was suspended one game for his role in the incident, agreed with Puig about Archer's suspension and called out MLB for not tossing the Pirates pitcher from the game immediately after he threw near Dietrich's backside. The league apparently informed Bell that Archer would have been ejected if the pitch was near Dietrich's head.

"We have to defend our team," Bell said. "We have to defend our hitters. We cannot let him stand up there unprotected with everyone knowing they're going to get thrown at by a 100-mph fastball and be OK with that. My sole intention is to protect our players, whether it's aimed at their head or anywhere near their head or their back.

"To me, it's all the same. For it to be OK, or somewhat acceptable, that it wasn't at his head - that to me is a very dangerous approach because as we know, even if they were aiming somewhere else, it could hit a hitter right in the head."