The long-time rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees seems to be back on thanks to Tyler Austin.
Austin slid into Red Sox utility player Brock Holt spikes first causing Holt to get agitated and creating a benches-clearing moment in Fenway Park.
Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly responded in the 7th inning throwing into the back of Austin and then beckoned Austin to come at him if he wanted to do something about it.
On top of all this commotion, the actual ball game included a number of compelling moments. This includes the fact that Red Sox starter David Price was only able to go 1 inning and had to leave due to “precautionary reasons”. Price in his one inning of work wasn’t so hot giving up 4 earned runs on 3 base hits and 2 walks with 35 pitches thrown, 16 for strikes.
The bullpen wasn’t much better for Boston with Heath Hembree getting tagged for three runs on 3 base hits, Matt Barnes allowing 2 runs on 1 hit and 1 walk. Boston’s bullpen did have a few bright spots including Bobby Poyner who threw 2 innings and only allowed 1 earned run on 4 base hits and 1 walk. Not exactly stellar, but given the night, not that bad for the left-handed rookie who was asked to come in to face New York in just the second inning.
Alex Cora also used Kelly recorded just one out before drilling Austin and getting ejected from the game. To replace Kelly, Cora called upon Brian Johnson to pitch on back-to-back nights in an extended action. Using Johnson will almost certainly rule him out from starting Saturday’s game which was a possibility.
As for the Red Sox offense, newcomer J.D. Martinez hit a Grand Slam in the bottom of the 5th inning to make it a 2-run ball-game at the time.
Going Forward This Could Make The Rivalry Great Again
With New York loading up this offseason landing Giancarlo Stanton to pair with their homegrown stud in Aaron Judge the idea of a renewed rivalry was brought up. But the issue with that thinking was there was a real lack of connectivity between the current rosters and the rivalry that once was the greatest in sports.
Now with this nice back-and-forth between the two clubs, there is a real potential for the rivalry to return and considering NESN ratings are up and up big the fanbase will certainly be there to support it.
Should be a fun season if both of these teams are neck-and-neck going forward and slug each other every time they meet.