BOSTON - First, the good news: Joe Kelly earned his first win since June 6. Now, the bad news: A pitcher earning the win doesn't always tell the whole story.
And it certainly didn't tell the whole story on Saturday.
Kelly, making his third start since returning to the big league team from the PawSox, allowed five earned runs on nine hits and a walk in 5.0+ innings. Luckily for him, the Sox jumped out to a 6-0 lead and beat the Rays, 11-7.
And based on the way things have gone for him this season, the outing was more of the rule than the exception.
The fact that Kelly's ERA rose just .17 to 6.11 tells you the type of season he's having, this his first full one for Boston.
Kelly was traded along with Allen Craig for John Lackey before last year's MLB trade deadline. After going 4-2 with a 4.11 ERA with the Sox last season, Kelly has taken a step back instead of the step forward most expected.
Kelly didn't allow a run through the first three innings of Saturday's game, but proceeded to allow two in the 4th, two in the 5th, and was pulled in the 6th after allowing the first to batters to reach base, one of which scored.
After the game, Farrell, as he has done often after a Kelly start, sugarcoated the outing a bit.
"I thought he used his secondary stuff much more consistently today," Farrell said. "There was a consistent energy in his delivery. He didn't try to overthrow. He did run into a couple innings where the pitch count started to climb but I thought the first three innings certainly a step in the right direction. But given how thin our bullpen is, tried to get as many outs as we could. Fortunately he pitched on a day when he had offense on our side."
Kelly mixed up his pitches in the middle innings trying to see what would work. The truth is, the Rays were all over his fastball. Eight of the nine hits he allowed were off his fastball, and seven of those came in innings 4-6.
"He got into some spots with men on and tried to locate some fastballs down and away and that's where the leak back to the middle of the plate started to show up a little more," Farrell said. "With runners in scoring position, that's where to control the emotion, control the adrenaline in your delivery is most critical, and that's still a work in progress."
So does Kelly get yet another chance to right his wrongs on the mound with the Red Sox? Farrell didn't have a set rotation for the road trip as of Saturday, but he's got a couple decisions to make before the team takes on the Yankees on Tuesday.