Joe Kelly Talks About Interesting Pre-Start Shaving Ritual
BOSTON (CBS) -- When Joe Kelly first arrived in Boston, we put together a list of things you should know about the new Red Sox pitcher.
We thought we had all the important details, but there's a new one that should probably find a home in his trivia page: The Boston righty shaves his arms before every start.
Kelly admitted as much Monday afternoon during an interview with WBZ-TV's Levan Reid to promote Nivea Men and their shaving products (which includes some fun videos on the company's Facebook page).
"Now everyone knows," he said with a smile. "It all started when my long hair got in the way a bit with the rosin bag. That stuff gets really sticky and it gets in your hair. It's not easy to get out."
Now that he's toeing the rubber with nice smooth arms each time out, Kelly is hoping he and the Red Sox will start to see better results on the field.
Boston sits at just 27-37, last place in the AL East, with Kelly 2-4 with a 5.45 ERA in 12 starts for the season.
"We're not playing well; obviously everyone knows that. It's something we as a group, from top to bottom, have to stick together and go through these tough times together. No one expected this coming into the season," said Kelly. "Everyone was high [coming into the season]; we have great talent and personalities on the team. We just haven't played the baseball we're capable of; we pitched bad at the beginning of the year but we were hitting, then we pitched better but couldn't hit. It's something where we haven't gotten the timing down."
The Red Sox are riding a six-game losing streak after back-to-back sweeps, most recently at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto scored 31 runs in their three-game sweep over the weekend.
"We ran into a hot Toronto team who is basically hitting everything. They could have hit golf balls; they were seeing the ball like it was a beach ball," said Kelly, who opened the series with a no decision, allowing four runs in six innings. "But that's baseball. Hopefully that's going to be us this week.
"No one in the clubhouse is getting down. Everyone is pretty confident, and if some mistake happens, no one is going, 'Here it goes again.' No one is thinking that. We're definitely staying together and that's all you can do during tough times like this," he said. "You have to have your head up. We have a little over 95 games left and if we stick together and have confidence and believe in each other, we just have to strap it on and go play the baseball we know we're capable of playing."
Kelly spoke of his own struggles, and said he has been working on a bit of an adjustment with his mechanics.
"I struggled for a little bit, those 4-5 starts in a row (he was 0-4 in six starts in May) I kind of got out of my mechanics. I had a friend from another team send me some help, telling me my mechanics were a little messed up," he said. "Not to give away any secrets but I changed a few things mechanically, and helped me find more consistency with my fastball location and to make everything look like a fastball out of my hand -- anywhere from changeup to curveball to slider."
Kelly is scheduled to make his next start (and shave his arms) Wednesday when the Red Sox open a two-game series against the Braves in Atlanta.
