It was the bottom of the seventh.
There were two outs.
The game was tied at one, runners were on first and second, and the fifth-best hitter in baseball was coming to the plate.
Enter Joe Kelly.
Needless to say, it was a high-leverage moment in the possible division series preview between the Nationals and Dodgers. Los Angeles was trying to preserve six-plus innings of good work from Hyun-jin Ryu. Washington was trying to take advantage of a scoring chance in a broader effort to stay at the top of the wild card race. Fringe MVP candidate Anthony Rendon was batting against fringe most-reliable-reliever-on-the-Dodgers Kelly.
You can guess what happened.
Yes, after falling behind 2-0 and then 3-1, Kelly dropped a knuckle curve in for a strike before forcing a foul pop-out from the slugger. The crisis was averted, the Dodgers scored three runs in the top half of the eighth, and our hero notched the win in the series opener.
In a matchup between arguably the two best teams in the National League, Joe Kelly showed he’s still got the steel nerves he used to carry the Red Sox to a title last fall. He showed he can still take on giants and slay them. He showed he can pitch anywhere, at any time, in any situation and get an out.
And with two games remaining in the pivotal series, we might see a lot more of that before the weekend’s over.
