What if two guys got into a shoving match and the benches cleared and, in the incident that led to it all, nobody was actually in the wrong?

Then you might have the Rangers-Los Angeles Dodgers quasi-brawl of Wednesday night featuring protagonists Matt Kemp and Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos. In the third inning of the Dodgers' 3-2 win, the two got into it after Kemp bowled Chirinos over at home plate.

Turns out that according to Major League Baseball's sometimes hard-to-decipher home plate collision rule, both were in the right: A throw from Nomar Mazara took Chirinos unintentionally into the direct path of Kemp; Kemp had no clear lane to the plate, and thus was within his rights to try to go through Chirinos, who held on to the ball for the out.

Now, what is still to be determined: Will MLB also decide that the ensuing shoving was an inevitable byproduct of a rule that veteran players have struggled to understand?

"I think the rule is unclear to everybody," Kemp said after the game.

Umpiring crew chief Bill Welke said Wednesday there was no violation of the rule, which was put in place after a collision knocked San Francisco catcher Buster Posey out for the majority of the 2011 season. MLB officials confirmed that interpretation Thursday.

The league, however, is still reviewing the post-collision shoving match that led to benches emptying for potential discipline. This is where it gets tricky.

Before the rule was instituted, the play would have been viewed as hard but accepted. Now, with the effort to protect catchers from a Posey-like injury, there seems to be something of a presumption that on a play when the catcher has the ball well ahead of time, the runner's only real option is to surrender or to try to dance around the base. But the rule does allow for contact, so long as the runner doesn't deviate from his path to initiate it.

Chirinos said he didn't expect Kemp to keep on trucking, but only took exception after the runner leaned his shoulder back into him when untangling after the collision. Chirinos shoved. Kemp shoved back. Chirinos took a swipe. The benches cleared. The players were ejected not for their roles in the collision, but rather for fighting. The real question, though, may be whether MLB can determine where one ended and another began.

"I was not expecting him to come after me with the time that I had with the baseball, but I know it's part of the game," Chirinos said. "The throw took me to the line. He went after me. I'm sorry for the fans who watched the game. That was not supposed to happen. After that, it was just emotions and reactions."

A year ago, the Chicago Cubs' Anthony Rizzo slid into San Diego catcher Austin Hedges, igniting more rhetoric than clearing of the benches. Rizzo was warned afterward by MLB's discipline chief Joe Torre but was neither fined nor suspended. In that case, though, there was no shoving, just more confusion over how to interpret the rule.

What might come into factor is that neither team seemed to seek retaliation as the game progressed.

Rangers manager Jeff Banister, a catcher who suffered a broken neck in a home plate collision in college, said he could see both players' explanation for being in the right.

"I think the spirit of the rule is to protect the catcher when he is vulnerable," Banister said. "By the rule, though, [Kemp] has every right to go through the catcher there. And he's got to protect himself, too."

This might just sum up the state of the rule. Both players were right in their interpretations. Perhaps those interpretations, more than the post-collision shoulder bump, were what ignited the brawl. And so this may be a case in which both players were right and still end up disciplined.

Welcome to modern-age baseball.

Briefly: The Rangers signed 14 more draft picks Thursday, topped by their sixth- and seventh-round selections, right-handers Sean Chandler (Western Iowa Community College) and Tim Brennan (St. Joe's). The club's top remaining unsigned pick is infielder Jax Biggers of Arkansas, who is currently playing in the College World Series. The Rangers have used $7.195 million of their allotted $7.356 million bonus pool for the first 10 rounds.

-- The Rangers optioned INF Hanser Alberto back to Triple-A Round Rock to make room for the promotion of Friday's starter, LHP Yohander Mendez.

-- The Rangers will on Friday re-evaluate RHP Chris Martin, who felt a twinge in his hamstring while running in to join the benches-clearing fracas following the home plate collision between Matt Kemp and Robinson Chirinos Wednesday.

Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant