D-backs don't miss a beat after hamstring cramp ends Kelly's day early

PHOENIX -- It was a frustrating day for Merrill Kelly, but the good news for the D-backs right-hander is that while the frustration may linger, there should not be any long-lasting effects.

Kelly left Wednesday afternoon's game with the Rangers in the top of the fifth inning with cramping in his right hamstring, but Arizona didn't miss a beat in defeating the Rangers 14-4 at Chase Field.

With the win, the D-backs swept the two-game series between last year's two World Series teams. The D-backs are tied with the Padres for the top NL Wild Card spot pending the outcome of the Padres game with the Mariners on Wednesday night.

Kelly threw a pitch to Marcus Semien with one on in the fifth inning and immediately felt his hamstring cramp. He knew at that time that his day was probably done, even before D-backs manager Torey Lovullo made his way out to the mound with a member of the training staff.

Kelly knows a lot about cramping after last season, when he was forced to leave three games in 2023 due to the issue, all three of which were at Chase Field.

"I knew I was going to come out of the game as soon as I felt it, just because it wasn’t letting go," Kelly said. "Before I stepped back on the mound, I still felt it. In the back of my mind I knew it wasn’t going to let go, but I was just giving myself at least some sort of effort to see if it would. Then when I stepped back off the rubber is when I knew it wasn’t going to give."

The frustration was evident on Kelly's face as he walked off the mound and sat alone on the bench in the dugout, staring straight ahead.

It was an issue that Kelly thought he had left behind last year after working nonstop with the training staff to try to figure out the best hydration methods and other things he could do to avoid it.

While pitching in the postseason and up until Wednesday, Kelly had not experienced a recurrence of the cramps.

"We’ve been sticking to that pretty much [all] this year," Kelly said of his routine. "I think that’s one of the reasons why it’s so frustrating. It seems like that’s kind of been the theme of the cramping stuff: It seems like it’s good for a little while and then all of a sudden it’ll attack me out of nowhere. I didn’t feel anything today before that pitch, warming up, the innings prior, no signs, no symptoms of it, and then all of a sudden I throw that pitch and…"

Kelly's turn in the rotation comes around again next week when the D-backs are in Denver to play the Rockies. Both Lovullo and Kelly said they don't expect the right-hander to miss a turn.

The drier air at the mile-high elevation in Denver can sometimes exacerbate issues like cramping and dehydration, but when this issue has happened in the past, Kelly has not had trouble putting the thoughts out of his mind the next time he takes the mound.

"I just do the best I can to continue to hydrate," Kelly said. "Obviously we’re going to talk to the training staff and our doctors and start turning over some more leaves and see what we’ve got. I feel like if I go into a game worried about it, I’m probably already behind the eight-ball. Every time I have a start that this has happened, the next one I don’t really think about it. Especially because it doesn’t usually happen early in the game. So I focus on that game and if it happens, it happens. I just try to block it out and focus on what I’m trying to do and the task at hand."