Sarasota Sailors Baseball

Former Sarasota Sailor Casey Kelly makes his major league debut for the San Diego Padres

 

SAN DIEGO, Ca. – Casey Kelly won't care tonight how he came to be standing on the mound at PETCO Park, wearing the uniform of the San Diego Padres.

 

The only thing that will matter to the former Sarasota High star is making his major league debut a successful one.

 

The 22-year-old right-hander will become the second active Sailor in the major leagues, joining Washington's Ian Desmond, when he delivers his first pitch tonight to the leadoff hitter of the Atlanta Braves.

 

Kelly's MLB debut was expected to happen eventually, ever since the Boston Red Sox selected him with the 30th overall pick of the 2008 draft, but a deluge of injuries to the Padres' pitching staff helped accelerate his arrival.

 

When veteran right-hander Jason Marquis was placed on the DL last Thursday with a broken bone in his left wrist, he became San Diego's seventh starting pitcher to go down this season.

 

Kelly himself missed much of the season with a right elbow strain. But in his last three appearances for Double-A San Antonio, he allowed 11 hits and seven earned runs in 16 2/3 innings, a 3.78 ERA.

 

He's healthy, and with the Padres in fourth place in the NL West, the timing of Kelly's arrival in San Diego seems appropriate.

 

 

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