Sloppy Defense Spoils Kelly's Salem Debut
May 30, 2009 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Salem Red Sox News Release
Salem, VA (May 30, 2009)- Frederick took advantage of Salem's sloppy defense that committed three errors, using a pair of four-run innings to knock off the Red Sox 8-4 and spoil the much-anticipated Advanced-A debut of Casey Kelly. If not for five unearned runs, Kelly could have been a winner. Instead, Kelly was knocked out of the game with two down in the sixth inning and the Keys rolled to the victory that evened the three-game series at one in front of a great crowd of 4,795 at Lewis-Gale Field.
Through two innings, neither team had a single baserunner, as Kelly dueled with Frederick's Tim Bascom over a pair of perfect frames. In the third, however, the Keys used four hits and a crucial error on first baseman Zak Farkes to score four times. Only one of the four tallies was earned, but the Keys had a 4-0 lead, which Bascom protected in the bottom of the inning with another 1-2-3 job in the last of the third.
The Red Sox finally broke through in the fourth, taking advantage of a hit-by-pitch that Kris Negron endured to start the inning. After stealing second and moving to third on Jon Hee's single, Chih-Hsien Chiang drove him in to make the score 4-1. The promising inning came to an abrupt halt, though, when Jason Place grounded into a double play and Luis Exposito lined out to center to end the frame. An inning later, Salem loaded the bases with one out and came up empty in a major squander.
Kelly tossed scoreless fourth and fifth frames before again running into trouble in the sixth. After Rodolfo Cardona struck out, Brandon Waring launched a solo homer over the left field wall to make it 5-1. It was the first homer that Kelly had yielded as a pro, and the tiring Kelly would not recover. He faced four more batters without retiring any of them (although he did pick off Billy Rowell at second base), finally giving way to the Salem bullpen. He left trailing 6-1 with two runners aboard, both of whom scored on Luis Segovia's fielding error at second base.
The Red Sox managed another run off Bascom in the sixth, but the Keys righthander finished six strong innings, improving his record to 4-4. Salem scraped two runs off Keys reliever Chris Salberg in the seventh, but were subdued the rest of the way en route to the 8-4 final. Red Sox relievers Andrew Dobies and Jose Alvarez combined for three and a third scoreless innings in relief of Kelly.
Offensively, Salem was led by Hee and Lin, each finishing with three hits. The rest of the lineup combined for four hits overall.
The Red Sox and Keys will meet in the rubber game of the three-game set on Sunday afternoon, a 2:05 start at Lewis-Gale Field. The finale will be a matchup of southpaws, with Salem's Jose Capellan opposing Frederick's top pitching prospect Bryan Matusz, the fourth overall pick in the first round of the 2008 draft.
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