While some may have felt Boston Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly overreacted when he intentionally hit Tyler Austin with a pitch on Wednesday night, most old school players and fans believe the New York Yankees first baseman should have seen it coming.
Not surprisingly, Chipper Jones is among the latter group. Following the benches-clearing brawl between the Red Sox and Yankees, Jones shared his thoughts on Austin sliding spikes-high into second base.
U slide in with ur spikes up and catch a piece, ur gonna get thrown at young fella. That’s how baseball works. It polices itself, whether people like it or not. That will never change. Love the spirit in both squads though. #Redsox/Yankees
— Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) April 12, 2018
Austin’s slide came in the third inning and Kelly hit him in the seventh, which was a bit strange. However, the slide was an aggressive one and Red Sox manager Alex Cora was openly unhappy about it.
Jones isn’t the first former MLB player to take Kelly’s side, and plenty of others must feel the same way. If you choose to slide spikes-high, you have to expect some sort of retaliation.
