We had three flare-ups from Wednesday’s action, two in the Yankees-Red Sox tilt at Fenway and one at Coors Field, when Nolan Arenado charged the mound against the Padres with anger boiling in his veins. cheap nfl authentic jerseys Worth noting: Both were intra-division episodes, which perhaps fueled the fires and also means it might not be the last time we see these teams going at each other.

Let’s start at Fenway, where the benches first emptied when Tyler Austin slid into second base and caught the back leg of Brock Holt with his spikes. Austin slid into the bag but sort of flipped his leg out as Holt stretched for the throw from third baseman Rafael Devers. The slide was in the gray area of being a slightly dirty play, especially considering Holt wasn’t trying to turn a double play. On the other hand, if you see the replay from the left-field camera, Holt didn’t stretch for the ball until Austin had started his slide. Holt also should have done a better job of getting out of the way. But again, the spikes were up.

That led to an exchange of words and a more or less conventional emptying of the benches and bullpens, with phone numbers exchanged and dinner dates planned. Aaron Judge had a big grin on his face, although Austin seemed a bit too riled up for his own good and had to be restrained.

Really, why would you want to fight the Yankees? It’s like “Mad” Max fighting Master Blaster in the Thunderdome without a whistle. You want Mookie Betts throwing punches at Judge? You want Andrew Benintendi going after Stanton? The Red Sox are lucky Judge is a gentle giant and merely grabbed Kelly in a headlock. It’s like when nobody wanted to mess with Frank Howard, even when he was just a first-base coach — that’s an offensive tackle just waiting there to mess you up.

If you’re a Red Sox fan, you’re mad hot at Austin. If you’re a Yankees fan, you’re mad hot at Kelly. In my humble opinion, the biggest issue here was it took Kelly two pitches to hit Austin, as he’d thrown inside earlier in the at-bat. The baseball code says you get one chance to throw at a guy; don’t blow it.

Of course, this rivalry goes back decades. The truth is — don’t deny it, Boston fans! — the Red Sox have always kind of been the punks here. I mean, what did A-Rod do other than try to slap the ball out of Bronson Arroyo’s glove? Next thing you know, Jason Varitek is shoving a hand in his face.cheap nfl jerseys china There’s Pedro throwing down old man Zimmer. Or Carlton Fisk throwing the first punch at Lou Piniella after the two got tangled up at home plate back in ’76. Oh, yes, thems were the days.