Yankees: Tyler Austin suspended five games for his role in brawl

Yesterdays bench-clearing brawl between the Yankees and Red Sox marked the return of some bad blood to the greatest rivalry in sports. It also led to suspensions and fines from both sides, which were announced today.

We all knew once Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly intentionally threw at the Yankees Tyler Austin that he would get suspended for igniting the brawl and that Austin would miss some time for charging the mound.

According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, both players will be suspended for close to a week with Kelly getting six games and Austin getting five. They’ll also receive undisclosed fines and both will appeal their punishments.

My first reaction to the news is that Austin got the short end of the stick between the two. His five-game punishment is fair for charging the mound and throwing punches but for Kelly to only get six games doesn’t make much sense. Say what you want about the slide which led to Austin getting drilled but Kelly started the fighting by throwing a 98 mph fastball high and tight.

It wasn’t at Austin’s head but there was clearly intent from Kelly to hit him and then he encouraged him to come out to the mound and fight him. Now I’m sure in Austin’s mind he was probably already set on going out there but the fact that Kelly egged him on only made his decision easier.

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The move to charge the mound probably wasn’t the best decision for Austin personally after he finally started to get some consistent playing time at the big league level. However, you can’t really blame him for being upset in the moment. He also certainly earned the respect of his teammates.

Now he will miss five games which is a pretty standard punishment based on recent history. For Kelly, his six-game suspension is really only two or three because the odds of him pitching in all six games are very slim. When you take that into account I think another two or three games should have been added on.

Obviously, as a Yankees fan, there’s bias and I personally don’t think Austin was trying to hurt Brock Holt with his third inning slide, but I understand why the Red Sox were upset. If that was Didi Gregorius catching a spike to his leg Yankees fan would be quite angry. However, I don’t think there was any reason to hit Austin, especially how they did so and when they did it.

Austin was hit in the seventh after he had already had an at-bat in the fifth inning. They didn’t drill him than so you can understand why Austin was surprised when they got him in the seventh. Also, Kelly took four pitches to finally hit him after missing inside with a fastball in the second pitch of the at-bat.

As teammate Giancarlo Stanton said following the game per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.

“You don’t need to drill him for that, and if you’re going to do it, do it on the first pitch.”

Next: What is going on with the Yankee bullpen?

Something tells me this won’t be the last time we see these storied rivals come to blows this season. Remember there are still 17 more games to be played between the two. It might not be tonight but the Yankees will get their payback at some point down the road.

Stay tuned.