Joe Kelly walked off the mound Wednesday night in New York thinking the Red Sox had just squandered a chance to lock up the American League East, when in reality, a celebration was about to take place inside the visitors’ clubhouse at Yankee Stadium.
Kelly surrendered a walk-off grand slam to Mark Teixeira in the bottom of the ninth inning after Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel gave up a leadoff single followed by three straight walks. The agony of a 5-3 defeat was real, even if most of the blame could be pinned on Kimbrel, but the pain quickly turned to jubilation for Kelly when he realized the Red Sox already had clinched a division title by virtue of the Baltimore Orioles defeating the Toronto Blue Jays just minutes before Boston’s late-game collapse.
“I was the first one through the dugout and the first one in the clubhouse, upset obviously, and I came in and realized all the stuff was up — the shirts were out, alcohol was everywhere,” Kelly said, according to WEEI.com. “That instant I knew that we clinched. I still wasn’t very happy about what happened. A minute later, I was the first one to take my jersey off, take my cleats off, take my belt off.
“A couple guys came in. (David) Price, (Rick) Porcello, (Clay) Buchholz. They came in and say, ‘Hey, man, we clinched. Forget about it. It’s one pitch. You’ve pitched big innings for us the last month and been a big help.’ It’s one of those things, there aren’t many times you give up a walk-off grand slam and be happy about it a minute later.”
The champagne celebration sure seemed odd at first given the roller coaster of emotions involved, but the Red Sox worked their tails off all season to put themselves into a position to lock up the AL East with four games remaining on the schedule. And that was the message conveyed by Red Sox manager John Farrell in addition to Kelly’s aforementioned teammates.
“One inning should not take away from the fact that they’re AL East champions,” Farrell said, per WEEI.com. “We are AL East champions. It’s been a hard-fought battle. They should be proud of the work that they put in, but by no means is this the end. This is just the beginning of our postseason.”
The beginning came sooner than Kelly expected.
Thumbnail photo via Noah K. Murray/USA TODAY Sports Images
