Reds continue mastery
Reynolds sparkles with homer, triple
Cincinnati roughs up Mitch Keller, beats Pirates again, 11-3.
CINCINNATI — Mitch Keller thought his start Saturday represented a step forward.
Meanwhile, what Bryan Reynolds has done this season, keeping with this metaphor, might best be described as a 60-yard dash ... with the National League MVP race verymuch in sight.
The paths of Keller and Reynolds, different as they might be, were two of the top storylines in the Pirates’ 11-3 loss to the Reds Saturday night at Great American Ball Park, their sixth consecutive defeathere this season.
In those games, the Reds have hit 17 home runs and scored57 times.
“They have a good lineup and a deep offense,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “When you’re facing a deep offense and you don’t execute pitches, you’re going to pay for it. We have in this series sofar.”
Evaluating Keller’s start was tricky. Sure, four runs over five innings isn’t going to make anyone feel warm and fuzzy inside, but he did show some signs of improvement.No, seriously. He did.
In his previous start, Keller’s breaking stuff was flat, and he left it over the plate far too frequently when ahead in counts. It’s one of thereasons Keller was sent to Class AAA Indianapolis in the first place, to get more consistent with locating his sliderand curveball.
To Keller’s credit, he stayedout of the middle of the plate with his spin pitches, which had more defined action than the previous time out. Even the ones that got hit, like a double he allowed to Reds left fielder Jesse Winker in the third, were put indecent spots.
(Winker had 22 home runs priorto Saturday. None came on balls down and in, which is the spot that Keller nailed witha biting curve.)
At the same time, Keller walked four, threw just 57 of his 100 pitches for strikes and fired first-pitch strikes to 11 of 24. Keller also went 2-0 or 2-1 on 10 of those hitters. The Pirates need more there.
Establishing the fastball has been a focal point for Keller, and he threw plenty of them — 62 total, including 34 (54.8%) for strikes. The Pirates likely want that number to be a little higher, and it lacked because Keller did command the top of the zone wellenough.
“He didn’t get ahead as much as we would have liked,”Shelt on said.
Keller did improve his fastball command as the game went on. Over the final two innings, Keller threw 27 fastballs, landing 15 of them in the strike zone.
“I felt great out there,” Keller said. “Again, same as last time, I felt really confident,r eally good about what I was doing. Just a few balls didn’t go my way.”
Keller cited a single from Nick Castellanos that beat a shift and gave Cincinnati a 20lead, which was fair. Wasn’t hit hard. Had the Pirates been at normal depth, it likely would have been an out.
He also needs to make a better pitch than the fastball hethrew to Castellanos in the fifth, which the Reds right fielder put over the fence. And don’t forget the three double plays that bailed Kelle rout of some trouble.
Itwould be presumptive or dumbto describe what Keller did as some sort of moral victory— he lost while giving up nearly a run per inning — but it’s also true there were signsof progress.
“Obviously, you don’t want to give up four runs, but there were a lot of positives,” Keller said. “When we were throwing my slider and curveball, making sure they were getting off the edge and down in the zone, I think I executeda lot of them.”
As for the offense, Burt … er, Bryan Reynolds’ — now sporting a sweep mustache — was outstanding, his sensational season getting better by the game. The Pirates center fielder went 3 for 4 with a home run, triple, three RBIs anda run scored.
Reynolds entered Saturday’s game ranked 13th among position players in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) according to Fan Graphs, fifth in the
National League.
Also beforehand, Reynolds was sixth in the NL in batting (.304), fifth in hits (119), eighth in on-base (.387) and ninth in OPS (.902) while playing some Gold Glove-caliber defense.
Reynolds’ triple came on a slider he went down and got and whacked down the rightfield line. He drove another slider into the grass beyond center for his 19th home run.
Reynolds now has as many homers as Ke’ Bryan Hayes, Colin Moran and Gregory Polanco.
“I figured he’d throw me something offspeed, and yeah, it was a good pitch to hit,” Reynolds said of his homeroff Brad Brach.
Asfor offensive (and defensive) production, which has been on par with baseball’s best, yeah, Reynolds didn’t have much interest in tackling that one.
“I just try to come in every day, and I’ll do what I can do,” hesaid.