Keuchel lets smile, pitching do his talking
After a shaky start, veteran lefthander calms down to turn in another solid outing
Dallas Keuchel had just given up a run in the second inning Friday, which tends to irk any starting pitcher, when a call didn’t go his way on a cut fastball to Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia on what he thought should have been an inning-ending third strike.
And so Keuchel looked toward home plate at Pedroia, catcher Brian McCann and umpire Angel Hernandez … and smiled.
He fanned Pedroia on his next pitch to end the inning and retired the next 11 batters he faced, sending the Astros on their way to an 8-2 victory and a 2-0 series edge over the Red Sox.
No fuss, no mess, no histrionics. Such was Keuchel’s command Friday that a borderline call was irrelevant.
“As a pitcher, you want every call, so when (Hernandez) didn’t call that cutter for a strike, I just smiled because at that point I knew I was on my game,” Keuchel said.
“I could have used that call … (but) I knew I was going to make another pitch, and at that point I just let out a smile instead of a getting mad type of face.”
Besides, with a lineup that has rolled up eight runs two days in a row, even with two missed bases-loaded opportunities Friday, what is there to be mad about?
“We couldn’t really script it any better,” Keuchel said of the Astros’ 2-0 start.
Keeping his composure
Keuchel said the Red Sox did test him early, making him go from his two-seam fastball to cut fastballs and sliders to get ahead in the count and close out hitters.
He had seven strikeouts and three walks while inducing seven groundouts and allowing one run and three hits through 52⁄3 innings.
Astros manager A.J. Hinch sensed that Keuchel was under some duress in the first inning, when the Red Sox had men on first and second with two out but failed to score, and in the second, when Young doubled, stole third and scored on Jackie Bradley Jr.’s one-out base hit.
“They were able to do some things,” Hinch said. “But he collected himself. … He didn’t unravel.”
Having gotten off the hook by allowing just one run in the second, cutting the Astros’ lead to 2-1, Red Sox manager John Farrell said Keuchel had the freedom to mix pitches while getting outs.
“He started to use his cuttersinker combination very well. (He) changed some speeds on some sliders, but he was kind of able to get in the flow of the game a little bit more,” Farrell said.
“I didn’t think he struggled at all,” said catcher Brian McCann. “Chris Young (who scored Boston’s only run off Keuchel in the second) jumped on a first-pitch fastball, but we worked out of that.”
Of their conference after the 1-2 pitch call to Pedroia, he said, “We just talked about the pitch. We talked about what to throw next, and then he executed and got a big punchout.”
Keuchel contributed to his own success, as usual, in the field, tracking down a fifth-inning dribbler to the left of the mound by Bradley and shoveling the ball barehanded to first baseman Yuli Gurriel before hustling to the bag to take a throw from Gurriel on Red Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi’s grounder behind first base in the sixth.
“He should win the Gold Glove every year,” McCann said. “He gets off the mound, he reads swings, he knows where the ball is going, he’s directing traffic. He does a lot of things that are impressive.”
Keuchel, in turn, said McCann’s command of the moment enabled him to maintain control throughout.
“It’s such a joy to have him behind the plate,” Keuchel said. “He was constantly telling me that the cutter was really sharp today and into the righthanded hitters and they weren’t expecting it. So he was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to keep going with this and hopefully spin that slider off the cutter.’”
‘Impressive to catch’
About the only thing that didn’t go their way, other than the second-inning call on the pitch to Pedroia, came when McCann was hit on the right hand by Boston reliever David Price. He said the ball hit him between the knuckle joints, “but I’m good.”
Otherwise, he said, it was a good day to work with one of baseball’s best lefthanders.
“He is impressive to catch,” McCann said. “He can pitch to all quadrants, in and out, up and down, and changes speeds on all his pitches. He and (Justin Verlander) set the tone for us.”