Red Sox starting pitcher Joe Kelly surrendered two earned runs on three hits and one walk in three innings Wednesday but racked up four strikeouts, all against the first six batters he faced, in his outing against the Yankees.
"He's got weapons to attack guys," manager John Farrell said after the outing, per MLB.com. "He can run a four-seam fastball in. He can spread them out with both his changeup and curveball, which he did today. The overall quality of pitches thrown today was much greater."
Kelly indicated that he didn't want to break out his entire arsenal against a key division rival.
"It's reading the game," said Kelly. "I got ahead, and if I was going to throw a regular start against these guys, I showed them my fastball, and I showed them my changeup. But I think I would have probably showed them more of my slider and curveball today if they started jumping on my heater and changeup like they kind of did in that third inning."
Kelly, who was rocked in his spring debut, has given up six earned runs in 4 2/3 innings this spring.