So today was Merrill Kelly’s fifth start of the season, after having his spring training cut short and then a lengthy rehab period to start the year. He entered the game carrying an unsightly 9.95 ERA, and while our broadcasters kept going on and on last Sunday about how he was “finally turning the corner,” he wound up surrendering 6 earned runs in while failing to complete five innings against the Cubs, which really didn’t support their oft-repeated thesis. Today, he was pitching at home, for a national audience because the game was being broadcast on Fox, and was facing off against Clay Holmes, who came into the game with seven starts under his belt and an NL-leading ERA of 1.69 (nice). So I for one certainly wasn’t feeling terribly optimistic, and I certainly didn’t expect a pitcher’s duel to break out.
But oddly enough, that was indeed what happened.
Merrill started things off with two quick outs, and then walked MJ Melendez, the Mets’ DH, on six pitches, which seemed to be a harbinger for control problems to come. No worries, though, at least not in the first frame, as Kelly picked Melendez off with a perfect throw to Ildemaro Vargas to end his inning with the minimum faced and only 11 pitches thrown. Because pickoffs don’t count as pitches. Sadly, however, Holmes retired our top three in order in the bottom of the first without breaking a sweat, and only 11 pitches thrown. It was eerie, almost.
We weren’t heading into the uncanny valley, though….Kelly recorded another two quick outs to start the second, then surrendered a single to Marcus Simien followed by a first-pitch meatball he left in the exact middle of the strike zone that Brett Baty sent out to deep center field for an RBI double. 1-0 Queens
We got some runners on base in the bottom of the second, thanks to a leadoff single by DH Adrian Del Castillo, and then a one-out walk by Nolan Arenado. The bottom of our lineup, though, were not going to cover themselves in glory today, though—collectively they went 0 for 11 with six strikeouts between them—as Holmes made short work of Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. and Gabriel Moreno.
Kelly pitched around a one-out walk in the top of the third to put up another zero, and despite being down a run, he was showing a lot more efficiency than in previous outings, pitching to contact and letting his defenders make plays behind him, and was go through the third with only 41 pitches thrown, and no nibbling at the edges of the strike zone in sight.
And finally, in the bottom of the third, our offense rewarded him with some actual run support. Not a lot of run support, to be fair, but when you’re very hungry even a half an apple and some crusts of bread are welcome. Ryan Waldschmidt, getting the start in center today and batting ninth, struck out to start things off, and four pitches later Ketel Marte grounded out to the pitcher for the second time in three innings, but then something nice happened! First Corbin Carroll grounded a single into shallow right. Then Geraldo Perdomo chopped a single over Bo Bichette and into left field, where Juan Soto made a very nice play to get the ball back into the infield that kept Perdomo from having a double and kept Carroll from scoring from first. That was okay, though, because ADC drew a six pitch walk, and then Ildemaro extended his new hit streak to three games with a single to left that scored both Carroll and Perdomo:
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Nolan Arenado then flied out to end the inning, but Ildemaro had given us the lead! Also, we hung 31 more pitches on Holmes in that inning alone, so he was up to 60 pitches after three. 2-0 DBACKS
And that, in terms of offense, was that. For both teams. Seriously. It hadn’t felt exactly like a pitchers’ duel up to that point, but that’s exactly what it wound up being. Both teams sat down in order in the fourth, Kelly pitched around a two-out double and an intentional walk to Juan Soto in the fifth, before retiring the Mets in order in the sixth and seventh innings to finish with his longest and best start of the season so far. His final pitching line was 7 innings pitched, three hits and three walks given up, one earned run allowed, and six strikeouts with 97 pitches thrown. Not too shabby, Merrill. Not too shabby. It’s almost like you turned that corner today that Steve and Bob were jabbering about during last Sunday’s broadcast. And damn, it was really good to see.
Meanwhile, Clay Holmes didn’t go quite as deep, retiring the top of our order in order again in the bottom of the fifth and then getting the first two outs in the sixth before surrendering a single to Arenado that got him the hook. Well, that and the fact that he was at 103 pitches after Arenado’s at bat, so his day was done.
So it was up to the bullpens, and both bullpens buckled down and did their jobs. Some dude named Austin Warren recorded four outs despite a two-out Ketel Marte doulbe in the bottom of the seventh, and somewhat hilariously Craig Kimbrel came out for the bottom of the eighth, and got three quick outs after walking the first two batters he faced, largely thanks to two egregiously bad one-pitch ABs by Vargas and Arenado that were duly pillories in the Gameday Thread.
For us, Taylor Clarke pitched a perfectly clean eighth, and Paul Sewald pitched a perfectly clean ninth to record his eighth save in eight save opportunities. Say what you will about Sewald being back on the roster, but the dude isn’t costing us very much while we await the return of Puk and JMart, and as long as we don’t let him pitch in any situation other than a save situation, he’s doing the business. Credit where credit is due.
Win Probability, courtesy of FanGraphs
Winner, Winner: Merrill Kelly (pitching line above, +35% WPA)
Chicken Dinner: Paul Sewald (1 IP, 0 ER, 2 K, +17% WPA), Taylor Clarke ( 1 IP, 0 ER, +12% WPA)
Gizzards and Entrails: The offense as a whole (30 AB, 6 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 8 K, -14% WPA)
Those Win Probability numbers pretty much say it all. Our pitching won this game for us. The offense did just enough. Seriously, though, and I mentioned this in a comment elsewhere earlier today, but Torey needs to take the whole damn offense and cram them into his office and have a “one-way” conversation with them like he did with the starters after the sweep by the Cubs last weekend. We’re damn lucky Merrill was so good today, and that the back end of our bullpen is proving right now to be capable of holding a one-run lead when we manage to give them a one-run lead to hold. But come on. We need to do better.
Anyway. It wound up being a pretty good Gameday Thread today, with 220 comments at time of writing. By popular acclaim and because I very much agree, today’s Comment of the Game goes to WebbGemz, for this appreciation of our often-reviled closer:
Stop by tomorrow as we try to secure our first series win in awhile. Everyone’s favorite hologram is going for us, while Hunter Brazoban is currently listed as the starter for the Mets, which I guess indicates that they’re going to be giving us a bullpen game, which might be fun. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm AZ time, TheRealRamona will be filing her guest recap for the month of May, and she lived in Queens for awhile back in the day, so I’m sure she will have thoughts to share. Hope you can join us!
As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!
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