The baseball season is long – the longest of the major sports – and is always more interesting when punctuated by high-stakes, emotional series between the bearded, oft-disheveled Red Sox and the Yankees with their pinstripes and priggish “no facial hair” rule.
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It wasn’t at his head but there was clearly intent from Kelly to hit Austin and then he encouraged him to come out to the mound and fight him.
Sure enough, nearly every member of the playing-staff could read those signals clearly also.
The Yankees and Red Sox play their series finale Thursday night, and Yankees manager Aaron Boone believes the theatrics will be behind everyone.
“I just feel like me”, Porcello said. But on Wednesday night, things would get well out of hand between the two sides.
They called themselves the Yankees, (The Evil Empire) and the Red Sox, and when they got together worlds would collide. Yankees third-base coach Phil Nevin and reliever Tommy Kahnle were also tossed. The 38 home runs he allowed were tops in baseball, and the 236 hits piled up by the opposition ranked second.
By the time the ugly inning was over, the Red Sox were up by four, with a dominant Rick Porcello on the mound. His only blemish was plunking Giancarlo Stanton on an inside fastball in the fourth inning. This particular brawl included towering Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hauling a Red Sox pitcher off the field in a headlock, Austin connecting with a punch on a Red Sox assistant coach and the two teams expressing contradictory feelings as to what precipitated the events in question.
“I remember Carlos Beltran, he talked about him past year and he felt his stuff was still there, but his changeup wasn’t there”, Cora said. However, I don’t think there was any reason to hit Austin, especially when and how they did so. “I think he was going in hard, and it was a bunt”, Holt said after the game, via ESPN. He’s received at least three runs of support in each outing this season.
Gary Sanchez was the star of the show in the Yankees’ eventual 10-7 victory as he cracked two brilliant home-runs, although the match will forever be remembered for a violent brawl that broke out during the contest.
Aroldis Chapman gave up two hits and a run on a wild pitch in the ninth, but got three outs to end the game. It was two teams that just didn’t like each other. After a wild winter that saw the reigning National League MVP, Giancarlo Stanton traded to NY, the “Evil Empire” was officially back on the map.
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The Sox are off to a 10-2 start, matching the 1904, 1918 and 1952 teams for the best 12-game start in franchise history. In 114 appearances with Boston (41 starts, 73 relief appearances), Kelly owns a 22-9 record with a 4.37 ERA.
