The Rays' Kevin Kelly threw a perfect pitch with 23 inches of break that left Reese McGuire fuming
At this rate, the Tampa Bay Rays might never lose a baseball game, and they’re leaving opponents dumbfounded in the process.
The Rays tied the modern MLB record on Thursday for the most consecutive wins to start a season, beating the Red Sox, 9-3, for a 13-0 start. An early arm injury to starter Jeffrey Springs forced the Rays to go with a bullpen game, and Kevin Kelly was up for the task.
Kelly’s sweeper and sinker both had some ridiculous movement in those 2.2 innings as he threw 31 pitches with at least 18 inches of horizontal break. But no pitch was more impressive (and more hilarious) than the 23-inch sweeper that he used to strike Reese McGuire out looking.
Kevin Kelly, Painted 76mph Back Door Sweeper.
23" inches of Horizontal Break.
[McGuire doesn't necessarily agree.] pic.twitter.com/nINszBTdcr
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 13, 2023
The pitch was nasty enough, but McGuire’s reaction took it to another level. McGuire seemed adamant that home plate umpire Nic Lentz missed the call. Yet, the pitch was absolutely on the money and caught the outside corner.
That’s just the reaction of a player who didn’t think a pitch could move 23 inches like that. And to be fair, the ball probably looked outside before that aggressive movement towards the plate.
MLB fans were understandably impressed with that pitch. It was filthy.