On Monday in Port Charlotte, she was loud and clear.
"It was weird — she was the only voice that I heard in the stands," Kelly said after throwing three strong innings in a Grapefruit League start against the Tampa Bay Rays regulars on Tuesday. "Anywhere I am I can always hear her voice."
Kelly didn't get himself into too much trouble, and the one time he did, the 20-year-old managed just fine. Perhaps mom's "Let’s Go Casey" chants were just what he needed to get through the jitters, which began three days ago when he learned he would start for the big club.
The maneuver gave the Sox their first real chance to see the Sarasota native face major league hitters. In his lone appearance with the club against Baltimore earlier this month, Kelly worked two late innings against mostly minor leaguers.
Coincidentally, the biggest challenge of his young career came against the team he grew up watching.
"To be able to face them on the mound was definitely weird," he said.
When asked, Kelly said that the two Rays he was always impressed with were Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton. How fitting that those two factored heavily in his outing.
After giving up a leadoff double to Jason Bartlett, Kelly worked Crawford to a 3-2 count in a great battle and finally unleashed an electric fastball which caught the outside corner, freezing Crawford and providing some reassurance that Kelly had nothing to worry about.
"After the first double I gave up, I was like well, that's the worst that can happen," Kelly said. "After that, I kind of settled down and you figure that you got to this point, you worked hard."
Upton was a strikeout victim to start the second, and when he came up again in the third with two on and two runs already in, he figured to be the last hitter of the afternoon for young Kelly. Again, Upton went down swinging and shot a little look toward the mound as he walked back to the dugout.
Although he has not been informed where he will start the season, Kelly has been working with the Double-A Portland group at the minor league complex in Fort Myers. He is scheduled to pitch again on Saturday, which would line him up to go in the Sea Dogs' opener at Reading on April 8.
For now, Kelly is content looking back on a sunny day in Port Charlotte and the weeks leading up to it. He feels as if he has set a course to make a big splash somewhere in the system this year.
"I think I've done more in these three weeks than I did all of last season pitching, so I want to take that into the season this year and get better and better every day," said Kelly, who was 7-5 with a 2.08 ERA in 17 starts at Single-A Greenville and Salem last year. "You’re never too good for any level, so you've got to take that and get better every day. … I definitely have a long way to go to before I get up there and become a regular starter, but this gives me a taste of it, and I definitely see what I have to work at to get to that next level."
When that day comes — and Tuesday's outing gave the Red Sox no reason to believe it won't — Mom will likely be there. Kelly will hear her cheering him on.
