Kelly's excellent first start

April 11th at Yankee Stadium, after that 19 inning ball game: teams come back to play a 1pm game. It's a nice day, wind blowing out to right. I thought for sure we would see some fireworks, but it didn't happen. With Kelly making first start after missing 2 weeks or so of the spring, he starts vs. Yankees instead of in a double A game.
The first inning was not bad, a 93-97 mph fastball, nice movement on fastball especially to Gardner and Beltran with sinker coming back over plate inside. Napoli continues to start slow 0-14 after first inning at bat, after a nice spring banging 6 dingers.
Second inning for Kelly was bit of location and lack of command issues, mainly I think from not getting the work and side sessions he needed in the spring. He does manage to get out of a 2nd and 3rd jam when Petit really helped out Kelly, swinging at two sliders in the dirt, exactly where Kelly wanted them. 3rd inning Holt comes up and gets on with base hit off a Warren curve ball. He kept his head down nice and hands back to drive it.
3rd inning for Kelly was better with better command and hitting more of his spots, especially to Beltran and his early season slow bat.
4th inning Sandoval comes up with nice plate coverage hits a Warren 3-2 changeup for a bloop single. Craig walks. Nava has a big 2 out single, driving in Pablo to the opposite field. Nava a usual pull hitter showed nice patience and plate coverage as well. Bogaerts comes to the plate and leaves 2 on and ends the inning. Warren threw 4 innings, was missing spots and just throwing too many pitches thru 4 innings (76)  I like Warren coming out of pen for Yankees where he can really use his fastball at its peak (95 plus) As a starter, you have to showcase 3 and 4 different pitches to the hitters. To me, Warren, who really relies on fastball and a little slider, really belongs in pen right now so he can come in in the 6th inning and give max effort with fastball. The Yankees in that 4th and 5th spot in rotation are short, especially with Capuano out right now. Kelly, threw 4 innings looks in better control of the game. His 4th inning was nice, with two strikeouts of Headley and Jones on well placed sliders. After 4,  he has set down 8 in a row with 50 pitches and is maintaining velocity around 95 mph, along with better command especially on secondary pitches.
5th inning Ortiz still looks out of sorts some, striking out on a pitch that in mid season he wouldn't even make an attempt on. Bottom 5th, Kelly looks still good and has command. He made another nice pitch to Petit on a slider in the dirt. This is the second time he has done that. 11 in a row after 5 innings.
6th inning, Napoli still looking for first hit of season, looks to me that he is pulling off the ball too much, more than usual. Bottom 6th, Kelly has a nice 2 seamer at 95 to Gardner that came back to the plate for a K. Better command the last 3 innings for Kelly, but man these Yankee hitters look like they are going to the plate with no approach to hitting today. Beltran again, slow bat on 2 seam fastball, 14 in a row for Kelly.
7th inning, Nava leads off with a walk from Wilson. Wilson, a lefty, cannot walk a first hitter on 4 pitches, especially lefty on lefty. That's bad pitching. Experts have said the Yankee bullpen is gonna' be a strength. Yes if they had a better starting 5, who could be counted on to go 6 plus, I see Yankee bullpen getting overworked and beat up this season. Miller and Betances are gonna have to pitch behind in score as much as ahead in score. You could see 30 different guys in that bullpen this year. Holt bloop single followed by Petey 2 run double. 2 questions here: why are the Yankee outfielders playing so shallow and who is setting this outfield defense? And why is ARod catching the ball with two hands at first base ?  LOL  Napoli ends inning still hitless at 0-17. Just another nice inning from Kelly. He is feeling it and now has set down 18 in a row with 8 Ks after 7 innings.
8th inning and for both teams some starters are getting a little throwing in bullpen, probably due to the late arrival to ballpark for some because of last nights game. Holt gets hit number 4 on the day. It's a double that Jones (again playing to shallow) can't catch up to. Jones is a 1st baseman with some experience in right field, but man that was a horrible route to the ball and he looks out of place out there as does Rodriquez at first base. It almost looks like the Yankees just woke up and came to the park with no intention on playing today. Bottom of 8th, Ogando makes another appearance out of pen. If this guy can stay healthy and give Red Sox 60 plus games this year, it would be a huge plus for this bullpen. The concern I have with Ogando is his delivery and mechanics being kind of violent. This could be due to his past injuries. I do like him from the stretch better than a wind up, less moving parts for him to go through  LOL His inning began with nice command and then he fell behind and made a terrible pitch to Young for a 3 run homerun, a hanging slider. Big League hitters will not miss those hanging sliders most of the time. I was waiting for him to punch out Young on 2 seam low and outside fastball where Kelly had success with him, but it didn't happen.
Bottom 9th, Ross in for Vavaro. I like Ross. To me he is a lefty that can come in and face a righty or lefty in any situation. His slider bites down nice to the righties inside. Personally I would have given Mujica the ball in the 9th, with the Sox up by 4, just to get him back in there after giving up that tying dinger by Headley the night before. Get his confidence back on track.I am not a Mujica fan, never was. The closer role is not a good spot for this guy. I think he is better suited 6th or 7th inning guy on first, so he can use his splitter and or sinking 89 mph fastball to get double play. When Koji comes off the DL you just might see that role for Mujica. All in all, I saw a nice pitched game from Kelly who, as the game went along, gained command and hit his spots with his pitches. The Red Sox did leave 3 guys stranded at third base in the game. Great swings from Nava and Holt with Papi and Napoli still looking to find their swing. Red Sox bullpen, I still say, will be an issue through this season. They are gonna need to find that "end of the game 3 guys" and set their roles, Tazawa we know is the 8th inning guy and Layne is trying to become that lefty specialist so lets see what happens.
Finally, if this is the Yankee team we are gonna see through 2015, they are gonna be in trouble, especially when Tanaka and C.C go on DL in 3 weeks.
That's my call