Joe Kelly at least knows not to admit to wrongdoing:
“Austin has a lot of power to right field,’’ Kelly said. “Our whole game plan is sliders in the dirt and to pitch him in. I threw a pitch inside and it hit him. It’s one of those that got away.”
Kelly was about the only one in the Red Sox clubhouse who declined to admit what had really happened, which was payback for what Boston perceived as a bad slide by Austin in the third inning.
Austin’s late slide clipped Holt, who was covering the bag on a force play. The shortstop exchanged words with Austin and the benches cleared for the first time, but both players stayed in the game.
“I probably said something I shouldn’t have said at the start,” Holt said. “But it was a bad slide and I think he knows that now.”
Right. It was a bad slide, but not terribly egregious, especially compared to Manny Machado’s slide into Dustin Pedroia last season. Holt and Tyler seemed to settle it at the moment with both benches clearing. That should have been enough. If the pitch really gets away, a pitcher could kill somebody.
It was two pitches inside. Yes, Austin gets suspended for charging the mound. But Kelly should get much more.
It was a dirty take-out slide, for which he perhaps should have at least been warned, if not ejected. He was clearly out, and not only didn’t get out of the way, like the new rule dictates, he didn’t even slide for the right side of the bag, instead diving for the left side and flaring his leg out, spikes up. No good reason for that. You could lacerate soemone’s leg that way, maybe worse. But a 98mph pitch up and in is not fair compensation for that. Austin’s a firstbaseman. Have someone “slide” They should both get suspensions.
The Red Sox challenged the slide. It was reviewed by MLB and declared ok.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIiYw53nGd0
Luis » When men were men. 🙂 But they were a lot skinnier then.