Kelly saves best ’til last
First close by fireballing righty
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Alex Cora showed some guts in the ninth inning yesterday.
Last time he pitched, Joe Kelly walked three batters to ruin a shutout and blow the Red Sox’ 4-0 lead during an Opening Day loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
But with Craig Kimbrel unavailable after pitching both Friday and Saturday, Cora told Kelly to be prepared for some high-leverage situations in the final game of the series.
What Kelly didn’t know is that he was going to be called upon in the ninth inning for his first career save.
“That was awesome,” Kelly said after escaping a jam and closing out a 2-1 win. “I mean, not for the save but to come back and pitch in a close game after he has all the confidence in the world in me, knowing what he saw is not me. That was just not it, obviously.
“It’s not like he handled it like, ‘Hey, you’re not going to pitch in any of those games.’ Everyone knows what I’m capable of doing.”
Cora had to patch together 31⁄3 innings of work from his bullpen.
Marcus Walden, the 29-year-old rookie, made his major league debut and recorded four outs to get it to the eighth. Lefty Bobby Poyner needed one pitch to retired lefty-hitting Kevin Kiermaier, and Matt Barnes was strong to finish the inning.
The ninth was Kelly’s. He recorded two quick outs before back-to-back singles put runners on the corners with Denard Span at the plate. Span worked the count full and then Kelly struck him out on a changeup near the dirt as the Red Sox improved to 3-1 on the season.
“We saw a lot of success Joe had last year,” pitching coach Dana LeVangie said. “He’s just getting back in the flow. He trusted the fastball there a little bit and also knew if he walked a guy, he still had the bases loaded with a righty on deck, so don’t give in. Threw a nice offspeed pitch under the zone, got the chase, we win the game.”
Cora said he had targeted Barnes for the highest leverage chance, which he saw as the eighth inning with the middle of the order due up. The ninth was for Kelly to get redemption and earn his manager’s trust.
“For us to accomplish what we set to accomplish, he’s a big part of that bullpen,” Cora said.
Kelly said he identified what was wrong in the Opening Day game.
“Yeah, but I’d rather not talk about it,” he said. “I’m pretty good at putting it behind me right away. It wasn’t like I just dwelled on it the past couple of days. I tried to work on some stuff and the day after, worked on stuff and felt good.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Hey I need to get in this ballgame to get right back out there.’ To get right back out there a couple of days after feeling like my mechanics were off, go back out there confident and pitch the end of the game like that, that’s fun. That was definitely a fun moment.”
Kelly said he kept a ball from the game given it was his first career save.
A long time coming
It was a special day for Walden, a 10-year veteran of baseball’s minor leagues.
“A lot of bus rides,” he said. “But definitely, being able to be considered a big leaguer now and have that day be yours, it’s an honor.”
After recording the final out in the sixth, he walked to the mound to start the seventh and took a moment to himself.
“That’s the same prayer that I’ve prayed honestly since I’ve been baptized, and that’s something that I’ll keep doing until I’m done playing ball,” Walden said. “But that’s something that definitely means a lot, slow down the game a little bit and reflect on what’s going on.
“Obviously I’ve started a lot in my career, and being able to take that time and calm down a little bit more, going back out for that second inning, I felt really good. I felt relaxed.”
Not going batty
The Red Sox have scored only 10 runs in four games, but Cora said he’s not worried.
“No,” he said. “Rafael Devers hit a fly ball, that ball was gone somewhere else. Christian Vazquez, I was joking with him I said, ‘You got to get on base.’ He hit three balls right on the nose and nothing. Those were pretty good at-bats.
“That’s a pretty good pitching staff. It’s a weird game with them. Every game is where are they going? They have good arms and then at the end they start cutting the ball and that slider and changeups. They were mixing it up. We put great at-bats today.” . . .
J.D. Martinez made a second straight start in left field and collected his first RBI in a 1-for-5 game yesterday.
“I asked him if he wanted to DH or play left field, he said left field,” Cora said.
Blake Swihart got the start at DH, his first start of the year, and went 1-for-3 with a walk.
Cora said Martinez is likely to be off today after starting the first four games of the season.