In Mondays game Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly left the game due to more cramping complications, Lovullo claims they “aren’t concerned.”
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“It’s probably a 2 out of 10 concern for us”
Torey Lovullo when asked about the frustration or concern regarding Pitcher Merrill Kelly’s common cramping #Dbacks #Arizonaborn #MLB pic.twitter.com/XmQUVHjats
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In a 4-2 Diamondbacks win Merrill Kelly was straight up dominating. Kelly threw seven complete innings striking out 12 batters, matching a career high. After throwing the first pitch in the eighth inning, though, Kelly called everyone in and exited the game. This is not the first time we have seen this. Kelly has been struggling with cramping, and especially in home games.
Is it really just cramping?
The Diamondbacks staff, along with the pitcher himself claims they don’t know the cause. As a former ball player, that might be the biggest concern surrounding the injury. Injuries are very obvious for the most part in baseball. Playing 162 regular season games is not easy and there is guaranteed going to be wear and tear on your body. Most of the time though, it’s hamstrings, ligaments, etc. stuff that is pretty easy to diagnose for the trainers. With a lingering cramping issue it could be rooted much deeper than just a cramp.
During the press conference after the game Diamondbacks skipper Torey Lovullo stated the concern is at “a two out of ten.” So, on the surface where we can see as observes it isn’t an issue at all necessarily. From as far as I can tell it could be a humidity thing. Kelly throws a baseball with so much force, that man has to be sweating buckets.
The biggest concern that I can think of is when it hits the fan, can Kelly be depended on to get the Diamondbacks into the playoffs? If Arizona needs Kelly to go the distance, can he?
The cramping doesn’t seem to be too big of an issue early in games, at least. Kelly is going to dominate until he sees a risk of injury. Maybe he should eat some bananas. “Monkeys never cramp.” – Munenori Kawasaki.
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Devan Blankenship is a sports and general assignment reporter for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @DevanB2456 for premium Arizona Diamondbacks.
