For a few reasons, the Boston Red Sox-New York Yankees rivalry softened a bit in the 2010s.
But that changed in 2018.
Two years ago Saturday marks the anniversary of the famous Joe Kelly-Tyler Austin brawl.
You remember it well, we’re sure: Austin slid into Brock Holt with his spikes up, and Holt didn’t like it. The benches cleared but nothing further happened. A few innings later, Kelly plunked Austin and Austin charged the mound, sparking a benches-clearing brawl.
It was a fine memory for Red Sox fans from the wildly entertaining 2018 campaign, and during an appearance on Barstool Sports’ “Section 10 Podcast” Boston pitcher Brian Johnson recalled the scrap from his vantage point.
Here’s a transcript of Johnson’s remarks in the video snippet the podcast shared on Twitter.
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“I was in it. I remember running out with (Craig) Kimbrel, I somehow got pinned up next to (Aroldis) Chapman for a little bit, and didn’t realize how big he is, and I was like “oh my God, this guy is massive.”
I’m trying to calm Joe down, (Eduardo Rodriguez) has Joe, but Joe is still yelling and I’m like, ‘Dude, you need to chill. We’re good, we’re good it’s done.’ I walk back to the bullpen, I sit down and I have my big jacket on, I had my beanie. And I’m sitting down, and me and Kimbrel are sitting there, the phone rings and they go, ‘Hey, BJ you’re in the game.’ And I go – I just threw two innings the night before – and I go, ‘Me?’
So I start throwing, and I’m rapid fire throwing while everything is going on the field. And then the umpire is waving me out to come warm up on on the field. I had just changed my walk-up song to Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down,” so it sounds like the Red Sox are trolling Aaron Boone, they’re really not. And Aaron Boone is yelling at (Alex Cora) and Phil Nevin is yelling at AC and the umpire, and now I can’t throw. And Christian (Vazquez) is (telling me) ‘C’mon let’s throw,’ And I’m like ‘If I throw right now I’m hitting somebody, like there’s three people in line right there.’
So I warm up and end up getting out of the inning, and Joe, I thought he was going to give me a dap for like ‘Hey everything’s done, good job’ but he came up and gave me a big hug after I came out of it and he’s like, ‘Hey thanks for not giving up my run.’
I never realized how small of a team we had compared to the Yankees until we were literally getting just bullied into our own dugout.
I’m not going to call out Mookie (Betts), but I am. Me and Kimbrel ran past Mookie on the way in. We’re running by and Mookie – and rightfully so, we don’t want Mookie involved in that – but we’re running in and we’re blowing by Mookie, like he wants no part of this.”
Ah, the memories.
