Kelly Stymies Rangers on Edges

That came after Kelly retired the first 11 Rangers he faced. Carter managed a single with two outs in the fourth to break up a budding no-hit bid, while Garver’s shot led off the fifth. At the time, it was only a 2-1 Arizona lead.

“He could put the ball where he wanted it today,” Garver said. “I saw it pretty good, it was just getting (the ball) off the barrel.”

But as Arizona generated offense off Rangers starter Jordan Montgomery and the bullpen, Josh Jung’s fifth-inning single was the last Texas hit until Marcus Semien singled in the ninth.

Kelly’s pitch mix proved essential. He threw more than 20 cutters and changeups, but he also used three other pitches at least 10 times — a four-seam fastball, sinker and slider. He only went to his curveball four times. Statcast also showed that his pitch velocity was up across the board on his season averages.

He also lived on the edges. The Rangers ended up with a lot of weak contact all night as a result of location.

“He has a lot to his arsenal,” Seager said. “But no matter what pitch he’s throwing, if he’s putting it on the edges in his spots, then he’s doing what he wants to with it.”

Kelly left after seven innings having thrown just 89 pitches. He struck out nine and walked none. Manager Torey Lovullo said that he sensed a bit of fatigue out of Kelly as he went to the bullpen.

But, by then, Kelly had done his job — and then some — as the Diamondbacks led, 4-1, at the time.

“He's a balance-feel guy,” Lovullo said. “When he gets his alignment it's really good and that's what you did see. I did notice the strike outs, I noticed there were no walks. And I felt like, probably between pitch 16 and 20, I think he was at 20 after two, that it was going real good for him.”