Hanley Ramirez knows Tyler Austin’s pain.
Joe Kelly drilled Austin with a pitch in the seventh inning Wednesday night at Fenway Park, sparking a bench-clearing brawl between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. Ramirez understands just how bad it stings to be plunked by Kelly, having suffered a fractured rib on an errant pitch from the hard-throwing right-hander in Game 1 of the 2013 National League Championship Series, and he reminded the world Thursday.
Ramirez sent the following tweet, making light of both Wednesday’s brawl and the 2013 incident, which occurred when Ramirez was with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Kelly was with the St. Louis Cardinals:
Ramirez and Kelly are in their fourth season together as Red Sox teammates, with the former signing with Boston as a free agent before the 2015 season and the latter coming over in a trade at the 2014 Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline. They buried the hatchet long ago, with Ramirez even posting a photo in 2015 of him bear-hugging Kelly. But Ramirez still can, er, rib Kelly from time to time, and the pitcher responded Thursday shortly after the slugger’s tweet.
The Red Sox clearly are keeping things loose in the wake of Wednesday’s fracas, which began when Austin charged the mound after Kelly drilled him seemingly in retaliation for a questionable slide into second base earlier in the game.
As for the Yankees, well, we’re not sure if they’re laughing quite as much, although New York won Wednesday’s game 10-7.
