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"THE FUTURE AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE"
Joe Kelly & the Sox power beats the Indians
August 19,
2015 ... In
his first full day as the Red Sox' president of baseball operations,
Dave Dombrowski saw flashes. He saw the explosive bats, the pitching
potential, the unique gifts in the outfield. He also saw the
inexplicable mental mistakes and the troublesome bullpen.
The Sox' 6-4
win over the Indians Wednesday night gave Dombrowski a chance to start figuring
out how he could be part of the solution going forward. Jackie Bradley made his
case early. With one out in the first inning, Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor
sent a 2-and-0 fastball screaming into center field. The ball had Bradley
twisting, with his back to the plate.
From the
mound, Joe Kelly saw Bradley playing shallow and assumed the worst. Then Kelly
watched Bradley leap, find the ball, and stretch with his glove to grab it. The
catch helped Kelly get out of the inning cleanly.
For six
innings, Kelly made his own case, taking the opportunity to build on one of his
best starts of the season, a six-inning effort last Friday against the Mariners
that saw him give up just one run on four hits. Through three frames, Kelly
faced the minimum with only two balls leaving the infield. When he gave up
back-to-back, one-out singles in the fourth inning, he cleaned it up by getting
Carlos Santana to ground to first. As Travis Shaw started the double play, Kelly
hustled over to first to cover the bag. Brock Holt absorbed a hard slide by
Lindor but was able make the turn, and Kelly stretched to make the pick and end
the inning.
Kelly held
the Indians to five hits and just one run, in the fifth inning, which was
unearned. He was sitting on 100 pitches when interim manager Torey Lovullo
decided to take the ball from him. Kelly was resistant but eventually accepted
the decision.
The Sox'
offense, which in a matter of five games went from ninth in the American League
in runs to third, remained hot with two sets of back-to-back homers. The first
two shots came in the second inning when David Ortiz led off by shooting a
1-and-1 sinker from Corey Kluber into the Indians' bullpen for his 26th home run
of the season. Shaw, who has feasted at Fenway recently, followed by going
opposite field for his sixth homer of the season, giving the Sox a 2-0 lead.
In the
fourth, Bradley laced a ball off the light tower over the Green Monster, and
after some initial confusion because the ball ricocheted back onto the field, it
stood as a three-run blast. Ryan Hanigan came next and launched a ball into the
third row of the Monster seats to put the Sox up, 6-0. The quartet of homers
gave the Sox 16 in their last seven games. They've scored 62 runs on 89 hits on
the homestand.
Still, the
Sox weren't immune to the confounding moments that have plagued them this
season, such as in the seventh inning, when Rusney Castillo lost track of the
outs after hauling in a fly for the second out and tossed the ball into the
stands. He was assessed a two-base error, though the Indians didn't score.
And despite
Jean Machi giving up a three-run homer to Yan Gomes in the eighth, Kelly's
fourth straight win was preserved, extending his longest winning streak of the
season. |
