Kelly sets tone with 12 K's as D-backs leapfrog Reds

PHOENIX -- Merrill Kelly was delivering one of the best performances of his career Thursday, throwing seven shutout innings, allowing just one hit and tying a career-high 12 strikeouts en route to a 3-2 win over the Reds at Chase Field.

The 32-year-old right-hander returned for the eighth inning and was going through his warmup tosses before suddenly stopping, holding the back of his right leg and exiting the game with a trainer.

Luckily for the D-backs, manager Torey Lovullo announced that Kelly exited with cramping in his right leg, and it should not affect his next start.

“Obviously frustrating with how that game was going, definitely wanted to go at least back out there for the eighth or get through the eighth and see what happened for the ninth,” Kelly said. “I feel fine; it was a cramp just like it was a couple games ago. Got to get back to the drawing board on some electrolytes stuff, mess around with some different strategies and just try to figure it out.

“As of now, all good. I don't anticipate any problems moving forward”

Losing Kelly for any amount of time at this point in the season would be a huge loss for the D-backs. Outside of Kelly and Zac Gallen, the rest of the rotation has yet to cement themselves as reliable starters. Kelly dropped his ERA to 2.97 and bounced back after a rough outing last week in San Diego, proving that when he’s at his best, he can put the D-backs in a position to win. With the victory, the D-backs moved into the third National League Wild Card spot, with a half-game lead over the Reds and the Giants.

“Location wise, I would say that's probably one of the better games that I've had since I've been here,” Kelly said. “I think if I'm locating and throwing all the pitches, it's going to be a tough go for the offense, whoever I'm facing. Just trying to keep them off timing and off the fastball, and I think the location is a big thing to do with that.”

The D-backs carried a 1-0 lead when Kelly exited, but that disappeared as Nick Senzel hit a pinch-hit home run off Kyle Nelson and Tyler Stephenson hit an RBI single off Miguel Castro.

But Corbin Carroll hit a go-ahead two-run home run off Alex Young, Carroll's first home run since July 23.

Carroll usually bats at the top of the order, but on Thursday he was batting seventh, something Lovullo said won’t be a permanent thing going forward.

“Against lefties I have a lot of versatility,” Lovullo said. “We have pretty much a complete [right-handed-hitting] lineup aside from Corbin. I just want to sandwich him in a spot where I can build some righties around him, maybe maneuver and still be left, right, left with Corbin right in the middle of that.”

The D-backs will enjoy the win, but Lovullo, Kelly and the training staff will work to find and prevent Kelly’s injury in the midst of this playoff chase.

It’s the second time Kelly has had to exit from a start, as on Aug. 9 against the Dodgers he departed with the same issue. At the time it drew concern because Kelly spent some time on the IL with a blood clot in one of his legs. He began to feel the cramp in the seventh inning, but was still able to strike out the side to finish his outing. Kelly let Lovullo know he was starting to cramp before ultimately being taken out. He revealed after the game that he struggled with cramping when he played in Korea.

“We're going to try to come up with a good game plan for him from our sideline and do everything we can to help him out,” Lovullo said. “What that means, we're not sure right now, but I think everybody's going to take a deep dive to figure out how we can assist him in any way to make sure that you can go out there and give us 100 pitches without feeling these cramps.”