Red Sox's Joe Kelly enters to thunderous boos at Yankee Stadium weeks after brawl

Tom Gatto

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Red Sox's Joe Kelly enters to thunderous boos at Yankee Stadium weeks after brawl image

The most hostile moment in the Red Sox-Yankees game Tuesday night was provided by the fans at Yankee Stadium.

They "greeted" Boston reliever Joe Kelly when he entered the game in the seventh inning, and by "greeted" we mean "booed the heck out of him":

PHOTOS: Sports brawls you won't forget

Kelly earned the reception (which he, of course expected, as he told the Section 10 Podcast) when he drilled New York's Tyler Austin with a fastball during the rivals' first series of the season at Fenway Park last month. Kelly's pitch was a response to Austin spiking Sox second baseman Brock Holt on a slide at second base.

Austin charged the mound and a benches-clearing brawl ensued.

Major League Baseball suspended Kelly for six games; Austin was banned for five. Kelly completed his suspension May 1.

His outing Tuesday left Bombers fans smiling. He allowed a tiebreaking single to Aaron Judge that proved to be the winning run in a 3-2 Yankees victory. New York moved into a tie with Boston for first place in the American League East; both teams are a sizzling 25-10.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.