FORT MYERS — Starter Joe Kelly looked as good as any other Red Sox starter this spring in his four-inning scoreless effort in yesterday’s 3-1 Grapefruit League loss to the Pirates. He spread out three hits and a walk, while striking out three.
In his previous start in Bradenton against the Pirates, Kelly struggled early before taking a tip from pitching coach Carl Willis to stop dawdling from both the windup and the stretch. He carried over that advice to yesterday’s outing.
“It was something I worked on between starts, just to speed up the tempo, my windup, and I sped it up a little bit and ultimately I threw the ball with more consistency of where I wanted to throw it,” Kelly said.