A swing of beauty (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
This game started out eerily similar to the horrible, no good, very bad game against the Twins on Thursday. The Red Sox jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to a Brock Holt! single and a Hanley Ramirez homer.
This was a real dead-center job. The pitch came in straight down the middle, and Hanley sent it back out to straightaway center. After spending all of yesterday in basepath purgatory, it was good to see Brock finally reach the promised land. Happy Brock Holt!
(Boston Herald/Matt Stone)
The Sox would add two more in the bottom of the 3rd thanks to a Hanley single, a Papi double, and a Napoli single. That would make the score 4-1 and unfortunately that would account for all of the scoring done by the hometown nine. It seems like the Sox can’t score more than four in games they win. A quick check of their recent game scores says that’s only somewhat true but that’s the way I feel so you can’t tell me I’m wrong.
Unlike Thursday, this one didn’t fall apart for Boston and that was thanks in large part to Joe Kelly. The man was pitching for his job as a starter and he came through.
| Pitchers | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kelly (W, 2-4) | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 5.40 |
He wasn’t Pedro in ’99 but he was effective, and has made John Farrell’s job of trimming the starting staff down to 5 a lot more difficult. John is essentially choosing between Kelly and Steven Wright, with one keeping his spot in the rotation, while the other will most likely be moved to the bullpen. Wright has been rock solid as a starter, and gave the rotation some stability and consistency when it needed it the most. Kelly has been up and down, but has been generally trending in the right direction over his last five starts. This is going to be a tough call. Wright has been in the bullpen before and would have a much easier time making the transition back to the pen. On the other hand, Kelly has the potential to be an extremely valuable reliever. The guy throws 98 consistently as a starter, if he was only going out there for an inning he’d be able to let loose with his fastball and simplify his approach.
But Righty, is there any precedent for a guy with a power arm and incredible raw stuff making the transition from a “tantalizing potential” starter to an effective reliever? Why, yes I’m glad you asked. Remember Andrew Miller? He made the exact same transition for the Sox a few years back. And while it’s tough to see him posting a 1.08 ERA and a 0.72 WHIP in a Yankee uniform this season, remember that he’s the guy they traded for Eduardo Rodriguez. That one is sitting pretty well with me right now.
Notes:
-If you had told me a month ago that Farrell would have a tough decision to make involving two starters who were pitching effectively I would’ve thought there was a trade involved. Or El Tiante came out of retirement.
-It was good to see Koji have a quick 1-2-3 inning after a string of shaky performances.
-There were a lot of positives to take away from this game, but I think the most encouraging sign was that the middle of the lineup was able to get the job done. Hanley, Papi and Napoli combined to go 6 for 12 with 4 RBIs. We’re going to need a lot more performances like this if the offense is going to resemble the juggernaut that was promised in the offseason.