Lance McCullers Jr. was critical of Joe Kelly for throwing at several Houston Astros players on Tuesday night.
Kelly threw a pitch behind Alex Bregman’s head and also taunted Carlos Correa during the bottom of the sixth inning of the Dodgers’ 5-2 win.
Though Kelly tried to deny throwing at Houston’s players intentionally, it was pretty obvious that the Dodgers reliever was trying to send a message to the Astros for cheating by illegally relaying stolen signs in real-time via technology in 2017. Houston beat the Dodgers in the World Series that year; Kelly was a member of the Boston Red Sox that season.
McCullers, who has spent his entire career with the Astros, called Kelly’s actions “unprofessional”.
“Joe Kelly threw a ball behind Bregman’s head on 3-0 on purpose,” McCullers said Wednesday, via ESPN Alden Gonzalez. “Not only did he take it upon himself to send a message, but he wasn’t even part of the team during that [2017] season. We knew coming into the game that he likes to go off script. It is what it is. It was done unprofessionally. What he did after he punched out Correa was unprofessional. Running into the dugout was unprofessional. So it is what it is. We’re here to play baseball. We just wanna win. That’s it.”
MLB on Wednesday announced an 8-game suspension for Kelly and one-game suspension for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. Many MLB players have already come to Kelly’s defense and sounded off about the suspension. The suspension carries even more weight because eight games represents 13.3 percent of a 60-game season.
