Tyler Austin suspended five games for brawl with Red Sox

As expected, Joe Kelly and Tyler Austin have been suspended for their roles in last night’s benches clearing brawl at Fenway Park. Here’s all the discipline announced by MLB:

• Kelly suspended six games and fined for “intentionally hitting Austin with a pitch and fighting.”
• Austin suspended five games and fined for “charging the mound and fighting.”
• Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Yankees third base coach Phil Nevin were both fined.
• CC Sabathia, Xander Bogaerts, Dustin Pedroia, and Marco Hernandez were all fined for going on the field while on the disabled list.

Both Kelly and Austin are appealing their suspensions, so they are eligible to play the meantime. Last year Gary Sanchez was suspended four games for his role in the benches clearing brawl with the Tigers, and it was reduced to three on appeal. Austin’s suspension might get knocked down to three or four games.

Teams have to play shorthanded while players are suspended — if you remember, the suspensions from last year’s brawl with the Tigers were served consecutively to avoid playing with fewer than 24 players on the active roster — which is not ideal, but the rules are the rules. At least no one got hurt.