Rivalry revved up
Two brawls punctuate Yanks win
The bad blood is back. New York Yankee Tyler Austin, in his 61st career major league game, sparked the rivalry with a questionable spikes-up slide into Brock Holt’s ankle and Joe Kelly made Austin pay with a 98-mph heater in the back four innings later.
Austin charged the mound and punches were thrown as both benches and bullpens cleared. The Yankees jumped out to a huge lead after David Price left after the first inning due to health concerns, J.D. Martinez hit a grand slam to bring the Red Sox back to life and then chaos ensued, interrupting any momentum and the Yankees ended up closing out a 10-7 win to even the series.
The loss snapped the Sox’ ninegame winning streak.
The chaos started with Austin’s slide in the third inning.
With runners on first and second, Tyler Wade dropped down a bunt and Rafael Devers threw to Holt at second to retire Austin. Austin was clearly out while Holt kept his right foot on the bag and had no intention of turning a double play.
Still, Austin slid with his spikes straight into Holt’s ankle, a similar play to the one involving Manny Machado and Dustin Pedroia last year.
Holt took issue with the slide and exchanged words with Austin, prompting both benches and bullpens to clear but no physical contact ensued. After a short delay, play resumed.
The next time Austin was up in the fifth inning, Heath Hembree struck him out on four pitches and he quietly went to the dugout.
It wasn’t until the seventh inning that Austin got his due. Kelly started him with a swinging strike on a slider, then came way inside on a 98-mph heater but didn’t hit him. The next pitch was another slider low. The fourth one was 98 mph and plunked Austin in the back.
Austin lost his temper immediately, slamming his bat as he made his way toward Kelly, who motioned Austin toward him. Kelly dodged the initial charge and threw him on the ground as he wildly threw punches.
The two biggest players on the field, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, quickly emerged to hold Kelly back and tried to make peace. But Austin threw a punch toward Kelly that missed and connected on the head of Red Sox third base coach Carlos Febles.
Both teams continued yapping at each other during a lengthy delay, and Kelly and Austin were ejected.
The game was interesting, too.
Price gave up four runs on a Stanton triple and Gary Sanchez homer in the first inning, then never returned due to a sensation in his pitching hand.
Sox manager Alex Cora used nearly his entire bullpen to piece together the game from there, avoiding only Hector Velazquez, who is likely to start Saturday, and closer Craig Kimbrel.
Down 8-1 in the fifth, the Sox jumped back into the game when they loaded the bases and Martinez connected on a juicy splitter from Masahiro Tanaka for a grand slam to center field that made the score 8-6.
The Sox scored six runs off Tanaka, the most they’ve managed in his 15 career starts against them.
But the Yanks added two more off Matt Barnes in the sixth and the Sox’ bats showed little life after the brawl.
They put two runners on in the ninth against Aroldis Chapman. Cora perplexingly used defensive catcher Sandy Leon to pinch-hit for Brock Holt (Andrew Benintendi and Blake Swihart were also available) and Leon popped up. Mookie Betts and Rafael Devers struck out to end the game.