To begin: Joe Kelly’s ERA dropped again last night, now sitting at 9.82. Though as the nerds would tell you, his FIP of 5.66 portends an exciting positive regression.
The bigger story, though, is that Joe Kelly started a thrilling turnaround for Los Angeles’ major league baseball team. While it came up short, there’s no denying that Joe Kelly changed the course of the game.
You see, the inning before Kelly entered, the Dodgers allowed the Cubs to score six runs. It was a meltdown. The game looked over. But then in the seventh, Kelly came in and stopped the bleeding, allowing only one run to score.
When Kelly entered the game, Los Angeles trailed by three. When he exited early in the eighth, lifted for pinch hitter Max Muncy, Los Angeles trailed by one.
Of course, it wasn’t enough to get Los Angeles a victory, but clearly, Kelly closed the gap.
And as always, he looked good doing it.
