CHICAGO -- The slider that Giants reliever Hayden Birdsong left hanging in the heart of the strike zone had no chance of survival on Monday night -- not with how locked in Cubs catcher Carson Kelly has been of late.
Kelly sent the sixth-inning offering rocketing over left field and into Wrigley Field’s bleacher seats, continuing his torrid start to this season and helping power the Cubs to a 9-2 rout of San Francisco. The catcher also helped Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd navigate his way through his fourth quality start of the year.
Kelly has expertly handled the balancing act between his many duties this season.
“When I put my gear on, it’s over. You flip the switch and you work on your pitchers,” Kelly said. “And then when I come in the dugout and take my gear off, then it’s hitting. Having those physical changes helps me make that adjustment.”
When the gear has been off, Kelly has been one of baseball’s more incredible offensive stories in the season’s first month-plus.
Kelly’s blast on Monday -- a leadoff homer that helped spark a five-run outburst in the sixth -- marked his eighth of the season. The catcher is currently batting .361/.500/.820 with 23 RBIs in his 20 games for the North Siders. His eight homers are the second-most through 20 games in Cubs history for a catcher, trailing only Gabby Hartnett (nine in 1925).
Kelly also currently has a 252 wRC+, meaning he has hit 152% better than the Major League average. To put that in perspective, Yankees slugger Aaron Judge entered the day as the MLB leader with a 261 wRC+ on the campaign. Judge was the only hitter ranked higher than Kelly among those with at least 70 plate appearances.
“He continues to take big swings, have good at-bats,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Offense from that position is hard to find in this league, and when you get offense from that position, as a team, it makes your offense dangerous. One more spot, one more guy kind of doing it on a regular basis. Both Carson and [Miguel Amaya] have provided that for us.”
Out of the gates this season, both Kelly and Amaya had a home in the bottom third of the lineup. As Kelly’s production has continued at such a high level, Counsell has started trusting him more in the Nos. 4-5 spots. Kelly was slotted in as the fifth hitter on Monday and his blast helped break the game open.
He was hardly alone in the win, which got rolling with a two-run homer off the bat of Ian Happ in the third inning. From there, Chicago’s team-wide speed -- most notably, via Pete Crow-Armstrong -- contributed to the Giants making four errors in the field. They gave the Cubs’ lineup plenty of opportunity to capitalize up and down the order.
As far as Kelly goes, power has not been the only eye-popping element to his season, either.
While Kelly did strike out once against the Giants, the catcher now has drawn 18 walks compared to just seven punchouts in his 20 games. He is currently sporting a 21.3% walk rate, versus just an 8.8% strikeout rate. Per Statcast, Kelly was also in the 98th percentile for chase rate (17.0%), entering Monday.
Statcast also had Kelly in the 94th percentile for hard-hit rate (55.8%), 96th percentile for expected average (.323), 98th percentile for expected slugging percentage (.626) and 99th percentile for expected weighted on-base percentage (.465).
“One day at a time, one pitch at a time,” Kelly said. “It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been fun to see all the hard work put in and to get results because of it. It’s one of those things, we just continue to work every single day and put in the work and take it pitch to pitch.”
And when the catching gear is still on, the pitches Kelly is focused on are the ones being thrown by his Cubs batterymate in that moment.
“After his at-bats, he leaves it all over there -- good or bad,” Boyd said. “He dials into what’s ahead of us in the next inning. That’s really, really cool. It’s impressive as a catcher to do that. And then you just see what he’s doing at the plate and the season that he’s putting together and it’s really awesome.”