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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Andrew Joseph

D-backs pitcher Merrill Kelly was visibly frustrated to be taken out after shutting down Phillies lineup

Merrill Kelly Phillies Torey Lovullo Dbacks Diamondbacks

There aren’t many more difficult tasks for a pitcher than going into Citizens Bank Park to pitch an elimination game. And Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly handled that challenge masterfully on Monday.

But if it were up to him, he would have stayed in the game longer.

With the Diamondbacks up three runs in Game 6 of the NLCS, Kelly had to navigate a fifth inning against the top of the Phillies lineup: Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper. In a three-run game, so much could go wrong against that lineup.

So, what did Kelly do? Oh, he just shut them all down with two Ks and a fly out. At that point, Kelly had to assume he had one more inning to go. Yet, D-backs manager Torey Lovullo met him on the top step and congratulated him on a job well done.

Kelly was not thrilled.

We could see as Kelly explained to his manager that he had just shut down their best players and was feeling fine for another inning. Lovullo wasn’t swaying in that decision — his starter’s night was done.

And while we have seen those decisions come back to bite managers in postseason games, Ryan Thompson pitched a scoreless sixth inning in relief.

Still, MLB fans had plenty of thoughts on that whole exchange in the dugout. Sometimes, you just have to trust your pitcher.

This was how Twitter reacted

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