Joe Kelly is back in action Saturday afternoon as the Red Sox try to find once more the form that left them so dominant in their last homestand.
While the offense hasn't managed nearly the heights they did against Houston and Oakland in this past week, there's no changes to be found in the lineup aside from Blake Swihart's continued presence in left field. That's not terribly surprising, either. Even in these last four games, the Red Sox have been averaging just a bit under four runs per game, which while not good, is certainly better than you might expect from anything that could be called a real low point. This is one very dangerous lineup, and they won't be held down for long.
The question is: how many runs will they need? Joe Kelly put on a show in his last Triple-A start, but the face remains that he's, well, Joe Kelly. The very same Joe Kelly who was so terrible in his first start of the season, and who has managed only the briefest periods of success since joining the Red Sox in 2014. If there is more hope for him than Clay Buchholz right now, that can only be said because we haven't seen as much of him as of Buchholz this year.
So maybe we'll luck into good Kelly, but if the Red Sox want to go home tonight with a win, they'd best plan on doing better against Trevor Bauer than they did against Corey Kluber last night.
First pitch is at 4:05 p.m. ET with broadcasts on NESN and WEEI.