PITTSBURGH — Don Kelly feels like he spent his first couple of months as the interim manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates drinking from a fire hose.

At some point after the All-Star break, the pace of the job started to slow down. And a season that was on the verge of careening out of control when he was promoted following Derek Shelton’s firing on May 8 began to get back on track.

Enough that the Pittsburgh-area native earned something that was a rarity during his playing career: stability.

The Pirates extended Kelly’s contract on Monday, confident the leadership he provided during a turbulent year is what the club needs as it tries to emerge from a decade of irrelevance.

Pittsburgh was 12-26 when the Pirates jettisoned Shelton in early May, part of an embarrassing stretch in which the c

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