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Can pitcher get arrested for throwing at Reds' batter? Yes, but he probably won't.

If you throw a baseball as hard as you can at someone's head while walking down the street, there's a decent chance the cops would arrest you.

But what if you're on a major league baseball field?

The question popped up Wednesday after Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters weighed in on the pitch that precipitated a bench-clearing brawl Tuesday night between the Reds and Pirates.

"Gutless behavior from that Pirates pitcher," Deters tweeted Wednesday morning. "You throw something that hard at a person's head, in any other circumstance, you're ending the night in handcuffs."

The pitch came in the seventh inning – two innings before the big fight – with Pirates pitcher Keone Kela on the mound and the Reds Derek Dietrich in the batter's box.