Merrill Kelly gave Yavapai College alumni plenty to talk about this week — just not for the reasons a pitcher wants.
The Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander was already mired in a winless stretch dating back to July 22 when Monday night's 7-0 shellacking at the hands of the Chicago Cubs lit the fuse on one of MLB's messiest controversies of the week. After the loss — in which Kelly surrendered three earned runs over 5.2 innings — he came out swinging, publicly accusing Cubs third-base coach Quintin Berry of relaying his pitch sequences in real time. "Bulls--t," was Kelly's unambiguous verdict, per Bleacher Report.
The accusation landed like a brushback pitch. It was legal — reading a pitcher's tip-offs from the base coaches' box is permitted under MLB rules — but Kelly's willingness to say the quiet part loud turned a routine loss into a league-wide conversation about the gray area between gamesmanship and cheating.
Then came the walk-back.
By the time Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo picked up the phone to call Cubs skipper Craig Counsell, the organization's posture had shifted entirely. Lovullo admitted the club "was wrong" and apologized for the public accusation. The whole episode underscored a persistent problem for Kelly this month: things keep going sideways, and the wins are not coming.
Still Searching for the Win Column
The sign-stealing drama didn't solve Kelly's underlying issue. He hasn't picked up a victory in more than a month, and his ERA sat at 5.35 after the Cubs outing. Saturday's start against the Giants offered a more encouraging line — 7.0 innings, 7 strikeouts, ERA dropping to 5.08 — but Arizona's record in that game wasn't listed as a win for Kelly either.
At 69-63 as a team, the Diamondbacks are tracking toward a roughly .500-plus finish, and Kelly's struggles are a meaningful thread in that underwhelming narrative. For a pitcher who was a postseason key not long ago, a month-long drought and a public controversy that ends in an apology is a rough stretch by any measure.
Yates Quietly Grinding in Pittsburgh
Lost in the Kelly noise: fellow Yavapai alum Kirby Yates continues to do reliable work out of the Pirates bullpen. The veteran right-hander appeared twice this week against the Padres — logging a clean inning with a strikeout in Tuesday's 2-1 Pittsburgh win, then yielding one earned run in two-thirds of an inning Wednesday. His ERA sits at 3.49, a respectable number for a reliever who's navigated plenty of injury setbacks to stick in the bigs.
Yates won't make headlines the way Kelly did this week, but for a Pirates bullpen that has needed dependable arms, he's been exactly that.
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