We keep waiting for Merrill Kelly, after four months on the IL, to return to his usual, reliable form. I trust that he’ll get there, I genuinely do, but, well, he’s still got a ways to go.
This one started out ugly, to the tune of Merrill surrendering home runs to the first three batters he faced to start the ballgame. To be fair, those three batters were Shohei Ohtain, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, but still. He stopped the bleeding after that, thanks to a Teoscar Hernandez foul out and, after a Will Smith single to left, a hard Gavin Lux liner to third that Eugenio Suarez caught and threw to first to double off Smith, who couldn’t get back in time.