The Yankees know Joe Kelly well, having gotten to know him the way dilapidated buildings know wrecking balls. So in their reunion yesterday, it was clear what should be expected, and expectations were met.
A lineout from DJ LeMahieu. A strikeout of Aaron Judge. A groundout from Didi Gregorius.
And that was just the first inning of Kelly’s work.
In the encore, Kelly allowed Gleyber Torres a bloop single before striking out Brett Gardner and inducing a groundout from Gio Urshela. Finally, after granting a walk to Mike Tauchman, our hero handed things off to his coworker, Pedro Báez, but the message had been sent: When it comes to the losers with the weird facial hair rules, Joe Kelly is in control.
The scoreless performance brought Kelly’s ERA on the season down to 4.26, and his Post-Joe Kelly Bobblehead Night ERA down to 1.17. And it left the Yankees singing a song they’ve come to know well: “We have no king but Kelly.”
