As soon as Chris Davis’s three-run bomb landed in the back of the batter’s backdrop in center field in Monday’s home opener, the internal clock in Craig Kimbrel’s mind essentially started counting down to the next time he took the mound.

Kimbrel didn’t have time to think about how his first impression at Fenway was ruined. He was thinking about his arm-slot.

The home run didn’t bother him nearly as much as the nagging thoughts of the two walks he gave away. The more Kimbrel rolled it around in his mind, the more he wanted to get back on the mound.

Red Sox pitching coach Carl Willis could see it as soon as Kimbrel got back in the clubhouse after being tagged with the loss Monday.

“He is an elite closer, he’s done it for a few years now,’’ Willis said. “And those guys that are elite, that’s part of what make them tick. They’re not going to be perfect. And when they have a tough day, they really look forward to getting out there ASAP — as soon as possible — and getting back after it, and he’s no different.’’

Before he could, he had adjustments to make.

Willis reached out to Brian Bannister, the Sox’ director of pitching analysis and development, to see what he could find. They both noticed the same things: Kimbrel’s arm slot dipped out more than usual. His delivery was more side-to-side than normal.

“It was something we were able to identify right away,’’ Willis said.

Willis didn’t have to point it out to Kimbrel, though. Kimbrel was already picking it apart on film.

“It was something that he actually realized, looking at some video,’’ Willis said. “The fortunate part of it was he felt it. Sometimes those things aren’t easy to fix, but he’s able to do that.’’

The two-day wait between his disastrous Fenway debut and his return to the mound Wednesday night likely felt like a lifetime sentence, but when Kimbrel took the ball in the ninth inning to close the door on the Sox’ 4-2 win, he stared down three of the same hitters that spoiled things for him Monday and steamrolled them.

Striking out Joey Rickard to start the inning was light work.

The revenge started the next at-bat.

The four-pitch walk that Manny Machado worked him for two days ago? Exorcised by a five-pitch swinging strikeout with a 97-mile-per-hour fastball as the exclamation point.

And when Davis stepped to the plate again? He didn’t get a fastball sitting low at the knees, right in his hot zone. He got a healthy does of 90-mile-per-hour curveballs that he could only whiff at.

“It’s baseball,’’ said Sox starter Joe Kelly. “You can’t script that any more, you know. That got him fired up and got everyone fired up.’’

The Sox broke up the Orioles’ seven-game win streak to start the season and stopped their own three-game skid with the win.

Kelly didn’t make it past the fifth inning, putting an already taxed Sox bullpen back to work in the sixth. He gave up seven hits and issued five walks while throwing 116 pitches, but struck out six. The two-run homer he gave up to Davis in the fourth inning was the only harm done. He fought through long innings — like his 27-pitch second frame, 23-pitch third, and 21-pitch fourth — to put himself in line for the win.

“Obviously, it wasn’t the best,’’ Kelly said. “But I went out there and grinded and battled against an undefeated team who’s been really, really hot. Those guys have a really deep lineup from top to bottom, even with Adam Jones missing. They’ve been playing excellent baseball.’’

But for the fifth time in just eight games this season, the Sox had to dig themselves out of a hole. Kelly got out of the inning without any more damage, and it didn’t take long to get the runs back.

In the bottom of the inning, with two on and none out, Xander Bogaerts shot a ball into the left-field corner. While Orioles left fielder Hyun Soo Kim was chasing it down, Sox third base coach wheeled both Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia around — drifting over the third-base line to get a good look at Kim in the corner and make sure Pedroia was clear to come around and tie the game at 2.

In the fourth, Brock Holt worked a leadoff walk. Then, after Ryan Hanigan struck out looking, Jackie Bradley Jr. stroked a 1-and-1 slider deep off the 380-foot marker on the short fence in right field for a triple. Holt scored from first to put the Sox up, 3-2. One batter later, Betts shot a sharp ground ball up the middle that clipped Orioles pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez and died in the infield grass for second baseman Jonathan Schoop to snag and then fire to first. He got Betts but Bradley came in with the fourth run.

With Kelly done, Matt Barnes and Tommy Layne had to combine to get three outs in the sixth, then Layne and Junichi Tazawa had to put together a 1-2-3 seventh to build a bridge for Koji Uehara’s clean eighth. That set the stage for Kimbrel’s dominant ninth.

“He was commanding his fastball, his breaking ball had some depth to it today, which the other day it was a little more lateral, so much more what we feel like we’re going to see consistently,’’ Willis said.

In a perfect world, John Farrell figured, the starters will eventually strike a balance with the bullpen. The formula that the Sox pitching staff has been working with for much of young season isn’t sustainable. Starters haven’t gone deep into games. The bullpen’s been seen more work that it probably should have so soon. The Sox relievers had only pitched 10? fewer innings than the starters entering Wednesday night.

Once again, the bullpen did the heavy lifting, but eventually, Farrell said, that will have to change. Willis marveled at Kimbrel’s turnaround, but agreed with Farrell.

“We’ve got a tremendous amount of confidence in [the bullpen] and they’ve done a great job,’’ Willis said. “The bottom line is they can’t continue to pitch four innings each night, five innings some nights. We’re going to have to get deeper into the game and lighten the load. But I’m very optimistic that’s going to happen.’’

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.