'Merrill the Mainstay' has his day: 7 scoreless, 11 K's

PHOENIX -- Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen get the majority of attention when it comes to the Diamondbacks’ rotation. That’s understandable, as Burnes has won a Cy Young Award and Gallen has been a finalist.

So it’s easy to overlook Merrill Kelly. He didn’t make his big league debut until 2019, when he was 30 years old and coming off four seasons pitching in Korea.

But there’s a reason he’s known as “Merrill the Mainstay” in Diamondbacks circles. He’s someone who consistently works deep into games while delivering quality outings -- sometimes at the most important times.

One of those occasions was Sunday afternoon, when Kelly did the heavy lifting in a 1-0 victory over the Rockies at Chase Field.

The Diamondbacks were coming off a brutal loss to the Rockies in which they coughed up a five-run lead in a 14-12 defeat. They ran through a lot of their leverage relievers in an attempt to stop the bleeding in that game.

On Sunday, they were shorthanded in the ’pen and were at risk of dropping a series to the Rockies, who have yet to win one this year and came into the game with the worst record in baseball at 8-37.

Kelly went out and not only managed to pitch seven innings, but he allowed just one hit and struck out 11 batters.

“He’s got a great heartbeat, a great understanding of what it takes to go out and execute,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “Nothing fazes him. Whether he went out there and dialed up seven innings of one-hit baseball or he gets banged around for four or five runs, he's going to be the same guy walking in the dugout.

“There's consistency with his mentality. He's just super engaged and super prepared, and can flip the script and turn the page as good as anybody I know. And that's maturity.”

It was by all accounts a masterful outing. Kelly’s 11 strikeouts were a season high and one shy of his career mark, but he was not pleased with the fact he walked three batters.

“If I'm being completely honest with myself, not getting ahead of people, the walks, obviously, I'm not happy about,” Kelly said. “But at the end of the day, if I can not feel my best and walk away with what I did today, then I can't beat myself up about it. And the fact that we were able to fight ’til the end and keep it the way it was, and scratch across a win after yesterday overall, a really good day.”

Kelly was never really in a jam, as the Rockies were able to get only one runner as far as second base against him, but whenever he did need to put away a hitter, he went to his best pitch -- the changeup.

Kelly threw 29 changeups, the most of the six types of pitches he threw, and got 17 swings on them. The Rockies whiffed on the pitch 11 times. The one-run edge provided by Ketel Marte on a first-inning home run proved insurmountable for Colorado.

"We were ahead on a lot of counts today, just didn't capitalize on balls in the zone to hit,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “He changes speeds so well; he nibbles. He's a really good pitcher, man. He knows what he's doing. We just didn't have an answer for him today."

After Kelly covered six innings with 93 pitches, Lovullo asked him if he could try and give him one more inning to limit the amount of relievers he would need to use. Working on one extra day of rest, the right-hander said he could and retired the Rockies in order in the seventh.

The Diamondbacks now head out on the road to face the Dodgers for three games and the surprising Cardinals. Banking a win on Sunday was crucial.

“Coming into this series, I think everybody's aware of how they're doing this year,” Kelly said of the Rockies. “I think you circle certain series over the course of the year as emphasis to really try to take advantage and take those wins. Obviously, with what happened yesterday … it was an emphasis today to come out and try to, at the end of the day, win the series.”

Thanks to Merrill the Mainstay, the Diamondbacks got that done.