NEW YORK -- As recently as the middle of last week, Joe Kelly was expecting to make his first start of the 2015 season in Greenville, for the Red Sox Class A affiliate.
It's a good thing that plan changed, considering how well Kelly pitched Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. Other than a brief rocky span of four hitters in the second inning, Kelly was nearly perfect for the Red Sox, providing seven strong innings at a time when they needed it most.
With the bullpen on fumes after a 19-inning battle Friday night, the Sox were the beneficiaries of a dominant, efficient outing from Kelly. He retired the final 17 hitters he faced, leaving the bullpen to worry only about the final six outs in an 8-4 Red Sox win over the Yankees.
"He was outstanding, particularly from the third inning on,'' said John Farrell. "He setttled into a rhythm ... a lot of strikes ... he was efficient, enabling him to get through the seven solid innings. The sharpness to his slider was well above average. He held his velocity throughout and really gave us a shot in the arm by going seven innings after last night.''
The Sox had penciled Steven Wright in for this start, figuring Kelly's arm strength hadn't been properly built after he missed time in spring training with some biceps soreness.
But a bullpen session in Philadelphia Wednesday afternoon convinced the Sox that Kelly would be good enough.
Was he ever.
Boston Red Sox
"As well he threw the ball (then),'' said Farrell, "he was ready. But it wasn't just me. It was Juan (Nieves, pitching coach), it was Dana (Levangie bullpen coach). We all witnessed the same thing. We knew that there would be limited pitches, but he wasn't taxed other than the second inning today, so we could extend him a little bit past the 78 (pitches) he threw (in a camp game last Monday).''
Kelly watched Friday's game in the ballpark until the 10th inning, when he decided to return to his hotel. He fell asleep after 15 innings and when he awoke this morning, checked his phone for the final score. It wasn't until then that he knew his teammates had played 19 innings in a game that lasted almost seven hours.
"Holy crud,'' said Kelly, recalling his reaction.
Kelly knew then that, regardless of arm strength, he would need to give the Red Sox length.
"I just tried to attack the zone,'' he said. "It was a long game (Friday) night and I knew that we were kind of thin in the bullpen, so I just tried to make quick outs. I was going to go out there and (pitch) until I couldn't.''
"Joe was awesome,'' said catcher Ryan Hanigan. "'Power' was the word of the day, I would say. His two-seamer was down, he was hitting the bottom of the zone, real consistently getting ahead. He had a nice slider to get ahead when he needed it. He pitched efficiently. I was excited about it - great start for him to build some momentum.''
The only struggle came in the second inning when Kelly allowed a leadoff single to Alex Rodriguez and found himself falling out of his delivery. Following a flyout, two walks and a wild pitch followed. But after yielding a run on a sacrifice fly, Kelly righted himself.
"I think he was a little quick with his tempo,'' assessed Hanigan, "with his delivery, a little off. He slowed down, relaxed a little bit, got some extension and settled back in.''
From there on, it was a clinic, with one perfect inning following another until Kelly reached 93 pitches after seven.
"My fastball was a little rusty,'' said Kelly, "but I had a good secondary breaking ball going that kept me in the game. When you're in that groove, you don't want to overthrow. Mentally, you tell yourself, 'This is working right now.' Seventeen in a row, once something's working, you stay with it.''