McAdam: Red Sox will have to make do without Kelly and it won't be easy

TORONTO -- If, after Opening Day, you told Red Sox fans that the team would be without Joe Kelly for six days at the end of April, it likely would have touched off a celebration.

After all, Kelly had been mostly responsible for the eighth-inning meltdown that saw the Red Sox turn a 4-0 lead into a 6-4 loss.

But ever since that debacle, Kelly has been the team's most effective and trusted high-leverage reliever, with 10 appearances covering 11.1 innings during which he's allowed five hits and a walk while striking out 10.

And now, thanks to his beaning of -- and beckoning to -- Tyler Austin of the Yankees in a brawl earlier this month, he's unavailable for six games.

Thursday night marked the first of those games and you could already see how much his absence impacted the Red Sox. With Chris Sale done after just six innings and 104 pitches, Alex Cora had to patch together the final three innings. Until Craig Kimbrel arrived and restored order in the ninth, it wasn't pretty.

First Carson Smith, who had shown some encouraging signs of late, experienced some regression in the seventh, allowing extra-base hits and a run scored to two of the four hitters he faced. His ineffectiveness forced the Sox to go to Matt Barnes, who got the final out in the seventh, striking out Justin Smoak to strand the potential tying run in scoring position.

Barnes wasn't nearly as efficient in the eighth, issuing back-to-back walks to Kevin Pillar and pinch-hitter Curtis Granderson before bailing himself out of his own jam.

The Sox simply don't have enough weapons for the eighth inning these days. Heath Hembree hasn't earned the right to be trusted in those situations and Brian Johnson and Hector Velazquez are depth starters trying to adapt to bullpen roles.

That leaves Smith and Barnes to help the Sox bridge the gap between their starters and Kimbrel. The former sports a 5.87 ERA for the season and the latter can't be counted on to throw strikes. Barnes has walked eight in 9.1 innings, which is a dangerous way to live in the late innings of close ballgames.

Fortunately for the Red Sox, the starting rotation has been providing quality start after quality start, regularly handing over a late-inning lead for the bullpen to protect. And thanks to an offense that, except for a three-game stretch earlier this week has been pounding the ball for weeks, there's usually enough margin for error.

But that won't always be the case. The team can't count on the lineup scoring six or seven runs every night and there are going to be games where the high-leverage relievers can't afford to make the mistakes that Smith made in the seventh.

Complicating matters, at least for Friday, is the fact that the team won't have Kimbrel available to handle the closing duties, since he's pitched each of the last three nights.

Merely competing a man short -- teams don't get to replace suspended players for on-field issues -- is compromising enough. But when that man short also happens to be the most reliable set-up man the Sox have had, the challenge becomes greater.

We can debate the wisdom of Kelly inviting Austin into his steel cage a few weeks ago, and his likely refusal to apologize for that while making his appeal. But that's done.

What's left is a depleted bullpen, already experiencing some difficulties, now operating without their best eighth-inning safety net.

Some more economical -- and deeper outings -- from the starters and a return to the firepower the offense exhibited in Anaheim last week would be most welcome.

Until Wednesday, when Kelly will be allowed to return, Cora and pitching coach Dana LeVangie have their work cut out for them.