He’s the fireman who shows up when the team is in trouble. The Arizona Diamondbacks’ Merrill Kelly has once again saved the day.
The right-hander started Game 2 of the 2023 Major League Baseball Postseason World Series against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on Monday (Sept. 29) and pitched seven innings of three-hit ball, striking out nine and allowing one run.
Kelly got off to a crisp start in the first inning, retiring leadoff hitter Marcus Semien on a seven-pitch walk and getting the next batter, Corey Seager, to fly out to shortstop to load the bases with two outs. He then struck out Ivan Carter on four pitches to end the inning with a triple play.
After retiring the first three batters of the second inning on two singles and a grounder against the Texas center field lineup, Kelly struck out two more in the top of the third for her third consecutive shutout. The inning was broken up in the fourth.
With a 2-0 lead, she retired Semien and Seager on a fly ball to left and a line drive to center, respectively, before giving up her first hit of the night to Carter on a low changeup two pitches later. Kelly was unperturbed, however, and got Adolis Garcia to fly out to end the inning.
In the bottom of the fifth, the scoreless streak was broken. He threw a 93.3 mph (150.2 km/h) sinker low on the body to leadoff hitter Mitch Garber, who connected for a solo home run. I wouldn’t say it was a bad throw by Kelly, but rather that Garber’s bat followed it too well.
Kelly then gave up one more hit to Josh Young, but didn’t allow another run. In the bottom of the sixth, Kelly again got a strikeout to end the inning, and in the top of the seventh, she faced just three batters with two strikeouts and a groundout.
After the seventh, Kelly turned the mound over to Andrew Salfrank, who finished the game. In seven innings of work, Kelly threw 89 pitches, walked three, struck out nine, and allowed one run to earn his first World Series victory.
After losing Game 1 of the World Series on a walk-off home run in extra innings, Arizona bounced back with a 9-1 victory behind Kelly’s dominant performance and the firepower of its offense to even the series at 1-1. Without Kelly’s performance, the A’s headed home to Chase Field for Game 3 in a gloomy mood. 토스카지노
Kelly, who played for the KBO’s SK Wyverns (now the SSG Landers), is making her first postseason appearance since joining the major leagues in 2019, but she’s been far too good for her first big league fall ball. In particular, he’s been stronger in crunch time.
In Game 1 of the National League Division Series (NLDS) against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kelly pitched 6 1/3 innings of three-hit ball with two walks and five strikeouts to earn his first major league postseason victory and first career win against the Dodgers.
Game 6 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) against the Philadelphia Phillies was a highlight. Kelly took the mound to bail out Arizona, which was down two games to none, and pitched five innings of one-run ball to secure the win.
Thanks to Kelly’s performance, Arizona pushed the NLCS to Game 7 and defeated the Phillies in Game 7 to punch their ticket to the World Series for the first time in 22 years, since 2001, when Byung-hyun Kim was on the mound.
Today’s game was no different. Down 0-1 in the series, Kelly took the mound and pitched a perfect game to even the series. With Kelly’s performance, Arizona will look to take the series lead in Game 3.