Times changing for rolling Kelly
NEW YORK — The Red Sox continue to surprise. And win. Yesterday, surging starter Joe Kelly outpitched phenom Jacob de-Grom, holding the Mets to just one run on five hits in 7 1⁄3 innings as the Sox topped the hosts, 3-1, for their second victory in as many tries here.
The victory was the sixth in as many starts for Kelly, the longest streak in the American League this season. A big reason is his offspeed pitches, particularly a nasty change-up he can feature whenever he wants. (He threw four straight to Kelly Johnson at one point yesterday.)
“It’s been a point of emphasis lately that no matter what team we’re facing I have to throw the offspeed,” said Kelly. “Earlier in the year I was throwing all fastballs and obviously that didn’t work out.”
DeGrom had a no-hitter until Brock Holt led off the fifth inning with a single, but his dominance evaporated in the sixth. Pablo Sandoval doubled in the first run, scoring Mookie Betts (single, second on a wild pitch). After Xander Bogaerts’ fly ball to deep center advanced Sandoval to third base, de-Grom walked Travis Shaw.
That left it to Holt to reach first base on a fielder’s choice and avoid a double play, allowing Sandoval to score for the 2-0 lead.
DeGrom was pulled after the sixth, having struck out 10, but Betts homered to left off Hansel Robles to make it 3-0. The Mets made a dent, as Juan Uribe’s one-out double scored Johnson (single), but the lead held up.
“Those little things we’re starting to do are starting to show up and be important,” said Betts, as the Sox have won 8-of-11. “I’ve got to give it to our starting pitchers who are throwing the ball great and giving us an opportunity. . . . You’ve got to put up some runs after that kind of performance.”
Kelly’s ERA in his last five starts is 1.69, and 2.68 during his win streak.
“I can’t say enough about what he did to give us a chance to win,” said interim manager Torey Lovullo.
Hanley shouldn’t be long
Lovullo expanded on the right shoulder fatigue that kept Hanley Ramirez out of the lineup for the second consecutive game.
“Hanley’s OK,” said Lovullo. “You get to this point in the year and all of these kinds of injuries, all these nagging little things are very typical for these athletes. My gut feel is he’s going to be ready to play sooner than later. I know he wants to play but we just have to be smart moving forward.”
Lovullo stressed Ramirez’s work at first base “did not lead to the shoulder issue,” and that this setback only paused the position conversion. . . .
The club has its fingers crossed David Ortiz will be able to play this afternoon. He has been bothered by left Achilles’ tightness, and didn’t look smooth going into second base when he doubled as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning.
“When I took off running, it kind of tightened up on me just a little bit but it’s not bad,” said Ortiz. “I think I’ll be able to play (today).”
Castillo working on concepts
Rusney Castillo made an error on Friday that Lovullo said qualified as both sloppy and aggressive, when he allowed a ball to roll under his glove as he charged it. It led to an unearned Mets run.
“I know that he understands that can’t continue to happen for us to be a championship ballclub,” said Lovullo. “There’s got to be a certain care and understanding when you have to be aggressive and smart aggressive and take risks. I think he is so wound up to impress and so concerned about making the right play that it’s just not yet a perfect reaction. And that’s what we’re trying to get to. We’re trying to have him stay in the moment and understand the score of the game, the timing of the game. And that’s coming. A very raw player has turned into what we see today. There are improvements.
“We are just going to continue pounding away with him and making sure that he continues to apply our concepts.” . . .
Junichi Tazawa was completely ineffective Friday night, surrendering four walks and throwing just 11 strikes in 28 pitches. Before his command went awry, he had to be tended to after twisting his body a bit awkwardly making a throw to second after fielding a comebacker.
Tazawa had discomfort in his hip/right groin and was unavailable yesterday. He will be re-evaluated today. . . .
Just like they did with tomorrow’s starter, Eduardo Rodriguez, the Red Sox are considering giving young starter Henry Owens an extra day or two between some starts down the stretch. The idea is to limit his innings count and monitor his workload, but not shut him down.