Yankees' Tyler Austin, Red Sox's Joe Kelly suspended by MLB following fight

BOSTON – In the judgment of Major League Baseball, the Red Sox were only slightly more culpable than the Yankees as a result of Wednesday night's brawl.

Red Sox right-hander Joe Kelly received a six-game suspension and Yankees infielder Tyler Austin received a five-game ban by MLB for their part in the fracas at Fenway Park.

Both players are appealing their suspensions and eligible to play in Thursday night’s finale of the three-game set.

Kelly and Austin were also fined an undisclosed amount of money.

Yankees third base coach Phil Nevin and Red Sox manager Alex Cora drew fines for their part in the seventh-inning incident.

Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia and Red Sox’s players Xander Bogaerts, Dustin Pedroia and Marco Hernandez were also fined for entering the field despite being on the disabled list.

Austin charged the mound after Kelly drilled him with a seventh-inning pitch, an obvious retaliation to Austin’s hard slide on Sox infielder Brock Holt at second base in the third inning.

The Yankees maintained it was a clean play, while the Red Sox felt Austin had gone in unnecessarily hard with his spikes up, in making contact with Holt.

Austin spoke briefly on Thursday afternoon, before the suspensions came down.

Asked if he’d do the same thing again, Austin said: “I’d rather not answer that question, to be honest with you.’’

Austin said he tried to ignore the attention stemming from the brawl, “but it’s on every TV channel,’’ he said. “For the most part, I try to keep off of reading comments on social media and watching the TV. I try to take that approach.''

Yankees manager Aaron Boone did not anticipate any carryover for Thursday's game and didn't feel there would be a need for warnings to be issued before the finale.

“Hopefully, it’s something that’s behind us and we’re here to play and try to get out of here hopefully with another win,’’ said Boone.

As for mentioning something to his club, Boone said: “We’re always talking. I probably won’t get up and address the team in a meeting format, but we’re a pretty close knit group and communicating all the time through coaches, through one another with the players, so I think all messages that need to be delivered will be.’’

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