Red Sox Brawls: Joe Kelly Fight Club Part 2
Joe Kelly would meet Tyler Austin as part of the Dodgers and Giants rivalry
Red Sox Brawls is a brand new article series that focuses on the donnybrooks and skirmishes during Sox history.
Former Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly and Yankees outfielder Tyler Austin were involved in a legendary melee at Fenway Park back in 2018.
Fast forward to the 2019 season, Kelly was a member of the Dodgers and Austin was with the Giants. Kelly, was asked to pitch for the top of the ninth in a 9-2 game.
The Dodgers were playing the Giants and Kelly was trying to close the door on the Giants. Kelly would need only four pitches to strike
out Austin.
Kelly pumped a few 99 MPH fastballs past Austin and later got him to K by throwing a curve down in the
dirt.
Whether he’s wearing Dodger blue or not, Red Sox fans will still appreciate Kelly blowing heat past Austin.
Back to the fight at hand – by drilling Austin and standing up for his teammate, Red Sox fans finally embraced Kelly.
Joe Kelly and Scott Van Slyke stand-off
The righty was always a witty and funny dude even dating back to his days with the Cardinals.
Back in 2014, Kelly and then Dodgers
outfielder Scott Van Slyke would have a pregame stare down before Game 6 of the
NLCS. Both players stared each other
down for 12 minutes.
It delayed the start of the game and both players refused to budge. In fact, the umpire threatened to eject the two players before the start of the game. Kelly taking a step toward the dugout first and Van Slyke, wearing a batting helmet, thrusting his hands in the air in
triumph. It would be the only victory for
Van Slyke and the Dodgers that day.
Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Buchanan
Who can forget Kelly’s disguise of Jim Buchanan? His character Buchanan was from JWK Punta Gorda and he would be a presence at Spring Training knocking over bats, calling
David Ortiz “Big Poopi” and Dustin Pedroia “Coach”.
His personality didn’t supersede the game, but he brought something different to Boston and his teammates loved him.
Kelly has a quirky and fun personality, but more importantly, he is a great teammate, and that was evident by drilling Austin.
During the 2018 season, Kelly was pitching lights out for the Red Sox at the point, considering he started the year terribly. At that point in the season, Kelly was going into the Yankees series with a 2.51 ERA and 0.77 WHIP. He hurled 14 consecutive scoreless innings, striking out 15 and walking only one.
Then manager Alex Cora said that, ”It seems like also he’s pitching with an edge.”
Cora would add, “I don’t know if it’s the whole thing that happened against New York.”
The Joe Kelly buzz would continue beyond Fenway Park. “Joe Kelly Fight Club” shirts would show up all over Boston.
The Yankees went on to to win that game 10-7, but in the long term it was a win for Boston.
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