Keller returns; results so-so
Mitch Keller’s return to the major leagues might have been disappointing, but it wasn’t damning. Or at least it shouldn’t be. Making his first start with the big club since June 10, Keller … well, looked like he has for much of his career.
Plenty of good and bad blended together, enough to make those who watch a lot of him nuts. What happened Sunday was very much the true Mitch Keller Experience, as the Pirates suffered a 15-4 loss to the Phillies at PNC Park, allowing another sweep to slip through their fingers.
Optioned to Class AAA Indianapolis on June 12 as a way to improve his confidence, consistency and pitch execution, Keller checked that first box and parts of the other two.
His fastball command was much improved; however, Keller struggled to consistently execute pitches when he was ahead in counts. Too much breaking stuff up that got whacked.
“I felt really good out there, honestly, body-wise and everything — mentality, confidence, I felt really good,” Keller said. “I had hitters 0-2, 1-2 and 2-2. I just have to execute a little bit better and get the ball down with my offspeed.”
Keller lasted five innings and gave up four earned runs on eight hits, striking out two. A positive
was that Keller did not issue a walk and threw 56 of his 80 pitches for strikes. However, the Phillies also hit Keller extremely hard, Philadelphia connecting on 11 pitches that resulted in an exit velocity of 95 mph or greater, seven exceeding 101 mph.
“One of the things we’ve talked to him about in his development in Indy — and we even talked about it pregame — was commanding the ball on the plate,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He commanded the ball on the plate. He left some balls over the middle that got hit, but he was on the plate, so that’s definitely a positive sign.”
One change for Keller since the last time we saw him involved his changeup usage, and he threw a season-high seven against the Phillies.
It still looks like a pitch in progress for Keller, who as recently as this offseason was fiddling around with grips before settling on a splitter variant that only knocks about 4-5 mph off his fastball. Typically pitchers target around a 10-mph drop for that pitch.
This became important in Keller’s last inning, as he followed the second of three Bryce Harper doubles by throwing a 1-1 changeup on the inner-half to JT Realmuto, who crushed it down the line (106.6 mph) for a 4-1 Phillies lead.
Realmuto gave Philadelphia a 1-0 lead in the first when he lined a hanging curveball from Keller into left, scoring center fielder Travis Jankowski.
Second baseman Jean Segura stretched Philadelphia’s lead to 3-0 in the second when he doubled to the gap in right-center, this time ambushing a firstpitch slider that Keller left up.
At that point, it looked like Keller’s return outing was going to be short. Credit to him, Keller settled down and retired eight in a row before another Harper double with two outs in the fifth.
“I think I was honestly a little amped up,” Keller said. “Being the first one back, after the second inning I kind of settled in a little bit and got the breaking balls down. After that, the
results turned in my favor a little bit there after the second inning, once I started putting my slider in the dirt and getting my curveball down a little bit more.”
Amazingly, Keller was one of the Pirates’ better pitchers Sunday. Cody Ponce gave up four earned runs over two innings. Luis Oviedo walked four, did not record an out, and coughed up another five runs. Nick Mears wasn’t charged with a run but issued a basesloaded walk and gave up a couple hits that allowed Oviedo’s runs to score.
The Pirates, who saw their two-game winning streak snapped, made it a 3 -1 game in the third thanks to Wilmer Difo’s line-drive single to right. Difo (2 hits) is hitting .320 with 3 doubles, 2 home runs and 8 RBIs in 22 games since rejoining the Pirates July 2.
Meanwhile, rookie Hoy Park collected his first MLB hit, lining a cutter from Phillies starter Kyle Gibson into the right-field corner for a double in the seventh inning. Michael Perez smacked a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth with the game well out of reach.
The Pirates (40-65) fell to 0-8 this season when they have a chance to sweep, which includes two-, threeand four- game series. They’re the only MLB club without a sweep and have not swept the Phillies at home since June 12-14, 2015.
The Pirates are 4-2-1 in their past seven series, going 10-12 in those games. The past three of those have featured failures to sweep on the final day.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to finish it,” Shelton said. “Sweeping a series in the big leagues is hard, and it’s something that’s just going to be part of our overall team growth.”