Kelly may face dad’s team
Who is right-hander Casey Kelly, and can he be another
Dereck Rodriguez? That would be asking a lot of Kelly, although there are parallels. Both were drafted as position players. Both have dads who were catchers.
Pat Kelly’s big-league career consisted of seven at-bats in three games for Toronto in 1980. As fate would have it, he is the interim bench coach for Cincinnati, where son Casey might start Friday night.
“That would definitely be a crazy experience if that ends up working out,” the younger Kelly said a day after he pitched five shutout innings in his S.F. Giants debut. Only two other pitchers made relief appearances that long in their first game with the club: Don Larsen (61⁄3 innings in 1962) and John Montefusco (nine innings in 1974). Unlike Rodriguez, who seemed to walk out of a cornfield, Kelly is a known commodity. The 28-year-old former shortstop was Boston’s firstround pick in the 2008 draft. The Red Sox shipped him to San Diego with Anthony Rizzo in 2010 for Adrian Gonzalez.
Kelly has struggled to gain a foothold in he majors, pitching in 20 big-league games for the Padres and Braves from 2012 through ’16 before Saturday night, when his first big-league audition for the Giants went beyond expectations.
“You don’t put it in my head to pitch five shutout innings,” he said. “I just wanted to give the team a chance to win.”
Manager Bruce Bochy has not named a starter for Friday. Kelly and Ty Blach are in the running.
This would not be Kelly’s first game against his dad. They faced each other once in the Gulf Coast League in 2008. Pat was managing the Reds’ farm club, Kelly playing for Boston’s.
Williamson ailing: Mac Williamson’s season has taken another bad turn. The outfielder went on Triple-A Sacramento’s disabled list with recurring symptoms from the concussion he sustained while tripping over the bullpen mound at AT&T Park on April 24, in his fifth game with the Giants this year.
Bochy acknowledged that Williamson might not return to the majors in 2018, saying, “I agree, with what just happened. It sounds like this thing has been lingering. Obviously, something must be going on and we’ve got to figure it out.”
Belt update: Brandon Belt, recovering from an knee injury, went 0-for-2 in his first rehab game for Sacramento on Saturday night. He was off Sunday and is expected to play seven innings Monday in Reno before rejoining the Giants in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He will not face his nemesis, Clayton Kershaw, who has owned him (4-for-54, 28 strikeouts).