The Yankees defeated the Red Sox in Fenway on Wednesday night (NYY 10, BOS 7), but the bigger story was the on-field hostilities between the two storied rivals. Benches first cleared when Tyler Austin slid into Brock Holt at second base -- the Red Sox felt it was not a clean slide, while the Yankees disagreed -- and then Joe Kelly drilled Austin to get things going for real ...
Kelly also appeared to throw at Austin before he connected on the pitch you see above. Given prior events, there's no doubt that Kelly was throwing at him with purpose. Kelly, however, put a little spin on the pro forma denial ...
Joe Kelly: “It was a pitch that got away on a cold night. … I walk a batter per inning. It’s not like I have Greg Maddux command.”
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) April 12, 2018
Calling the purpose pitch one that "got away" is pretty standard stuff, but credit to Kelly for taking the opportunity to shout-out the great Greg Maddux in the process. As for the merits of his argument, Kelly has indeed walked a batter per inning on the young season, and over the last three seasons he's walked 12.3 percent of opposing batters, which is a lofty figure. He's also plunked 25 batters in his career (counting Austin), so he's no stranger to coming inside, accidentally or not. All that said, it's pretty hard to believe that Kelly wasn't trying to put a bruise on Austin.
These same two teams get together again on Thursday night!
