So.
It’s the Padres.
I have to say, I don’t like it. I don’t like Joe Kelly having to face the most fun baseball team in my lifetime. (The 2015 Cubs have been stained by the 2018-20 Cubs becoming such a torturous disappointment, and the 2004 Red Sox have been stained by the city of Boston not ceasing to be the city of Boston in the face of victory—the assholery is lovable when they aren’t winning much, like in Philadelphia, but once they’re winning a lot and it becomes corporate assholery, it’s no longer lovable.) I don’t like the thought that with emotions high, Manny Machado might get into it with Max Muncy and Joe Kelly might feel compelled to defend his teammate in the manner in which Joe Kelly defends teammates. I want Joe Kelly to still be the guy who emasculated the Astros. I do not want him to become the guy who clutched his pearls about the Padres. I am scared that it’s hard to separate those things. But I want my cake, and I want to eat it.
Outside of that, it’s an exciting series. Joe Kelly’s in the position he was in back in 2018 entering the ALDS—he’s a low-level option in the bullpen. He might come in to pitch in a mop-up situation, or one in which the game’s lost itself and it’s 8-5 in the fourth inning. He will, of course, dazzle in this setting. It will, of course, result in him getting high-leverage opportunities. He will, of course, dominate in those opportunities. The run will begin again.
So.
Overall.
It’s as great a time as ever to be a Joe Kelly fan. But we should all remember that Manny Machado’s kind of an ass and if Joe Kelly throws at him it’s because of that and doesn’t mean Joe Kelly is anti-fun. Joe Kelly is the most fun.
