BOSTON — The Red Sox’ top performer in their 8-1 drubbing by the Cleveland Guardians was a reliever who, for four innings, interrupted the visitors’ offensive momentum after they had raced out to a seven-run lead.
It was that kind of night for the Red Sox.
Zack Kelly, who was promoted from Worcester Monday when teams could expand their active rosters, made his first major league appearance since June 29 and it was a strong one.
Kelly tossed four shutout innings, throwing 63 pitches. Both were career highs in the majors for the righthander.
“He did a good job, pitched well, competed,” said Alex Cora in admiration. “He threw 33 pitches four days ago (for Worcester) and he went up to (63). We needed that. Obviously, we didn’t much offensively. But he gave us a chance to try get something going so that was really good.”
According to Kelly, he hadn’t pitched as many as four innings in a single outing since 2019 when he was still pitching as a starter at Double A.
“I think it’s just part of understanding my role,” said Kelly. “Coming up here with the expanded roster, it’s trying to give some other guys (on the staff) a break. I felt good, I was happy with how everything going, so I was fully planning on going as long I had to. Whenever AC told me told to stop, I was going to stop.”
Kelly took over after relievers Jordan Hicks and Steven Matz contributed to a six-run second inning. He retired nine of the first 10 hitters he faced over his first three frames and over his four innings of work, allowed just two hits.
During his time in the minors, Kelly had made it a priority to work on his cutter, which he used with effectiveness Wednesday.
“Ir was great,” said Kelly. “I thought I stayed behind it instead of getting around it. I was able to play it to the lefties really well. I located it, for the most part, where I wanted it and got some weak contact with it, so I was really happy with how that played tonight.”
His final hitter of the night was Cleveland leadoff man Steven Kwan, with whom he engaged in an epic 11-pitch at-bat. As the at-bat developed, Kwan fouled off five straight pitches at one point. It became a war of attrition.
“After one of the foul balls,” said Kelly smiling, “I asked him what pitch he wanted. I was ready for the at-bat to be over. I threw him everything, I even threw him a curveball. But it was a fun battle. He’s a good player, so to be in a battle like that was fun.”
Finally, on the final pitch of the at-bat, Kelly got Kwan swinging on a changeup for the final out of the Cleveland sixth.
As he piled up the outs, inning after inning, Kelly almost adopted a starter’s mentality.
“I haven’t done that in quite a while,” he said. “After the third (inning, pitching coach Andrew Bailey) asked me where I was at body-wise and I said, ‘I’m fine.’ Kind of like I did when I was a starter, you kind of get in that groove and you just let it rock.”
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