Padres right-hander Casey Kelly made his first major league start in three years Friday night at Petco Park against the Diamondbacks. After a rough start, Kelly calmed down but it was too late for the Padres.
Kelly struggled early giving up two runs in the first inning. The big hit was a second inning grand slam off the bat of Arizona’s A.J. Pollock to make it 6-0. But Kelly settled down retiring the next 11 hitters. He went five innings giving up six earned runs walking one.
The Padres got on the board in the fourth when Matt Kemp scored on a Jedd Gyorko ground out. Wil Myers added another run in the fifth with an RBI single and Alexi Amarista made it exciting cutting the Diamondbacks lead to 6-3 the next inning with an RBI single of his own.
But the Friars couldn’t complete the comeback dropping them to 72-82 on the season. Game two is tomorrow at 5:40 p.m. local time.
