Kelly’s out, what next?
Subtractions are not solutions
BALTIMORE — Good for the Red Sox for at least and at last realizing they needed to excise the rot from their rotation. The deadwood is out back burning.
Now to the real dirty work: finding real solutions.
Joe Kelly has been tossed from the rotation less than a week after Clay Buchholz was yanked out. Kelly’s on his way to Triple-A Pawtucket after last night’s 21⁄ 3- inning wipeout in a 13-9 loss to the Orioles, and the Red Sox have at least admitted their problems.
“Blessed with a golden arm and tremendous stuff, but the execution of it has not been as consistent in those games than what he showed previously,” manager John Farrell said of Kelly. “At some point, we’ve got to take more control from the mound.”
Yeah, a month ago or a winter ago.
Maybe Kelly can regain the form he showed two starts ago. Maybe he can become a serviceable reliever, or maybe he’ll just disappear on the Rusney Castillo express to nowhere.
“I didn’t see it coming, but you know it’s the move they decided to make and I’m just going to go down there and try to continue to get better at what I do,” Kelly said. “Commanding the baseball. And just work on all my stuff and try to get back as soon as I can.”
He better not be back unless the Sox are damn sure he’s useful. What happens to Kelly isn’t nearly as important as how the team fills out the rotation and by extension, how aggressive it becomes in the trade market.
Because of off-days ahead, Farrell said a fifth starter isn’t need for nine days. OK, time is bought. Get it done.
This could not stand the way it was. The need for urgency was so clear after what transpired at Camden Yards last night, when everything wrong with the Sox at present was on an exaggerated display. It was like some smart editor took a yellow highlighter to the script, slapped the manuscript down on management’s desk and yelled, “Fix this now!”
The Sox’ hitting is a marvel. The ascension of Xander Bogaerts (25 games on the hit streak), Mookie Betts (five home runs in two games, are you kidding me?) and Jackie Bradley Jr. is its own phenomenon. Their play next to the forever-young Old Guard, David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia, has been one of the greatest gifts of this baseball season across the 30 teams.
When that offense produces a season-high five home runs, including two more from Betts and another from Ortiz; when that offense gives Kelly a thirdinning lead after Kelly allowed four runs in the first inning and it’s still not good enough — and then the game is handed over to Buchholz in mop-up — that’s everything you need to see.
Buchholz wasn’t even the primary villain. But seeing him and Kelly out there as the offense did all it can, what louder wakeup call could exist for the Sox? The starting staff’s 4.74 ERA is 10th worst in the majors.
The Orioles have a good offense, too, and it doesn’t even matter. The Red Sox have scored nine runs and lost for the second time in five days — a feat they pulled off Saturday in Toronto in a 10-9 loss to the Blue Jays.
Since the start of the 2010 season, the Sox have scored at least nine run and lost just 14 times.
“Offensively, this team puts up numbers every night,” Farrell said. “I think if any starting pitcher looks, if you keep the game under control, minimize the damage, stay away from the big inning, you’ve got a chance for quite a bit of success, as do we as a team. An outstanding night offensively once again.”
There will be more big nights at the plate, and they can’t be squandered by the pitching staff.