Man, Joe Kelly’s the best.
Last night, our hero threw a baseball 100 miles per hour, struck out Paul Goldschmidt and Yadier Molina, got Nolan Arenado to ground out, and struck out Tyler O’Neill, thoroughly dominating the team that brought him into the league.
And all people could talk about was his leg kick during that at bat.
Which is fair.
Because look at it:
Imagine being John Gant and seeing Joe Kelly pull out this leg kick. How do you not throw the ball to the Staples Center and then pace around pursing your lips doing the, “He got me,” walk? How do you still deliver the pitch? Respect, John Gant. Respect.
Twitter friend and Joe Kelly comrade-in-arms @francdotcom had the clip ready to go of Kelly doing this during a plate appearance with the Red Sox in…August 2015? Was that the game, Frank? Either way I am impressed you had that ready to go.
The takeaway here is that Joe Kelly always has this in the arsenal, and it’s worth reminding everyone that the Dodgers wisely let him bat for himself even though he was coming out of the game to start the next inning, because he’s a pitcher of whom better hitting can be expected than is the case with the average thrower, and if that isn’t because of his bat itself, then it’s probably because he might startle the pitcher into accidentally drilling him in the leg or florping a ball into the dugout.
Some way. Some how.
