BOSTON — Red Sox reliever Zack Kelly hasn’t pitched well during the second half.
He entered the All-Star Break with a 1.45 ERA (18 ⅔ innings, three earned runs) in his previous 14 outings. Manager Alex Cora even described him as “one of our best” the Saturday before the break.
But the 29-year-old allowed five earned runs on six hits (three homers) and four walks in his first five outings of the second half. That included recording just one out while giving up a run, hit and two walks in Tuesday’s loss to Seattle.
But manager Alex Cora sent Kelly back out there Wednesday and he did the job. The Red Sox won 3-2 over Seattle here at Fenway Park.
Kelly hurled a scoreless 10th inning, preventing the automatic runner at second base from scoring. He pitched around a hit by pitch and walk to earn the victory. He said it felt “so good.”
“It’s probably one of my favorite outings of the year,” Kelly said. “Last few outings, last seven to 10 days have been pretty tough mentally. Just trying to get over the hump, over the hump. Today was good. I needed that one.”
Kelly’s wild pitch allowed automatic runner Cal Raleigh to reach third base with no outs. But he then got Justin Turner to strike out swinging and Leo Rivas to ground out to first base.
After a hit by pitch and walk, Kelly retired Mitch Garver on a groundout to shortstop to end the inning. Rafael Devers then hit a walkoff RBI double in the 10th inning to win it.
“Sometimes I think I maybe need to flip the switch a little sooner than I do,” Kelly said about how long he lets a bad outing bother him. “There’s definitely times where it’s pretty easy. But I try to make sure no matter what that once I get to the field the next day, it’s gone. So I showed up today ready to work. Obviously yesterday was pretty tough. But today I showed up, same routine, went through everything, got ready to go. And fortunately I got another opportunity to go back out there.”
