Snake Bytes 5/29: 10 K

Diamondbacks News:

[MLB] Merrill Kelly strikes out 10 in win over Red Sox

“You gotta tip your hat,” Cora said. “He’s one of the best in the league and at least we battled with him, but we didn’t finish it.”

[AZS] D-backs avoid sweep behind stellar performance from Merrill Kelly

“I’d like to think everything,” Kelly said when discussing what has been working for him recently.

“Fastball location has been a lot better. Cutter is coming on, especially the backdoor ones. And the changeup I think is probably the difference maker. If I’m throwing good changeups, I think it kind of opens up everything else.”

[AZC] Merrill Kelly in command as Diamondbacks hold off Red Sox

“In an era that people talk about overpowering stuff and all that, his command is perfect, similar to, back in the day, like Maddux,” Cora said. “He put it wherever he wanted to.”

[SI] D-backs avoid sweep thanks to Kelly’s masterful start

“It seems to me they were sitting soft with two strikes, and Merrill and Gabby [Moreno] got ahead of that” said D-backs manager Torey Lovullo. “They started to pick that apart for a few innings, there were several fastball strikes taken for Strike Three. You don’t see that a lot in the big leagues, so they clearly game planned, sat soft and Merrill did a great job of counterpunching.”

[AZS] Suns’ Ishbia, D-backs’ Kendrick among richest people in Arizona in 2023 per Forbes

Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick cracked the list with a $1 billion valuation at No. 2,540. In total, Arizona had 12 individuals make the list of 2,640 billionaires.

Baseball News:

[SBNation] An MLB umpire mocked a challenge into a hot mic, then overturned their incorrect call

[MLBTR] Michael Soroka to start Monday for Braves

Michael Soroka hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since August, 2020, but an almost three year wait to return looks set to be over Monday with a series of transactions suggesting he’ll be called up to start tomorrow against the Athletics.