Keuchel might hold key to Astros’ season
The Astros fell short of expectations the first two months of the season and need a turnaround from ace Dallas Keuchel.
The Houston Astros crowded around the dugout’s top step, eager to congratulate pitcher Dallas Keuchel for his win.
For the first time in more than a month, his teammates were able to do so.
“It’s the first nice start in a while where I can smile and the team won,” the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner said after he beat the Los Angeles Angels during Memorial Day weekend to end his five-game losing streak.
The win was one of 11 over the past 13 games entering the week for Houston (28-30), which had crawled back to the pack of playoff contenders.
If the Astros are to complete their rise from the American League West cellar to a playoff spot, Keuchel’s revival will be a key development.
“He is going to turn it around and is going to have a great year,” shortstop Carlos Correa says.
Houston’s disappointing first two months after a 2015 wild-card berth can’t all be laid at Keuchel’s feet. Correa, the 2015 American League rookie of the year, also started slowly, but Keuchel’s start was a major departure from the consistency he has shown over the past two seasons.
Before he faced the Angels on May 28, Keuchel had gone 0-5 with a 7.78 ERA over his previous seven starts. Last year, he gave up more than three runs six times in 33 outings. This season, he did it in five of his first 10 starts.
“A lot of the stuff he has done early in the season is noteworthy because we aren’t used to seeing him struggle with his command and control,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch says. “When you see guys struggle that have had the type of success he’s had, it gets a little more magnified than the issue really is.
“Then when you are on a team ... we’ve underperformed a little bit. And he wants to carry the workload whenever his start comes up because it means some-
thing to him.”
Hinch didn’t panic when Keuchel, 28, wrestled with the accuracy that makes him so effective.
“He is our ace and he is still our ace,” Hinch says. “He’s going to make pitches, and it won’t shock me if he rolls off 20 quality starts in a row. That is how he is.”
Keuchel was able to do that last year. He went 20-8 with a 2.48
ERA, finished fifth in AL MVP balloting and was a three-time AL pitcher of the month. He became the franchise’s third Cy Young Award winner after being among the league’s top two in wins, wins above replacement by a pitcher, innings pitched, ERA, opponent batting average and WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched).
That’s what makes his 5.50 ERA entering the week so jarring.
“He has spoiled everybody,” catcher Jason Castro says. “We just expect that every time he takes the ball that it will be a shutdown.”
So what got Keuchel away from being an All-Star?
“I was pressing a little bit too much, trying to be too perfect,” he says. “That’s not how you go about your business, and it kind of snowballed there for a few starts.”
Keuchel didn’t forget how to get outs. He merely was slightly off-kilter, which means everything to a pitcher who doesn’t hit triple figures on the radar gun.
“If you can command the ball at 84, 85, it’s amazing what you can do,” says Keuchel, who uses a fastball, cutter, slider and changeup. “The harder you throw, I guess, the more mistakes you can get away with.
“But command is the name of the game here, and if you don’t command the ball, you’re going to get burned more times than not. And so far this season, I’ve been burned more times than not.”
He looked like he was going to get burned by the Angels, too, when he allowed two-strike home runs to Mike Trout and Albert Pujols in the first inning. But he settled down and gave up only those two runs, plus one more hit and had five strikeouts and zero walks over seven innings.
His May 28 win over the Angels was his first win since mid-April and his third win of 2016.
“I don’t know about relief,” Hinch says. “I have never lost faith in Dallas. He has been mechanically one click away from rolling off an outing like this.”
Hinch says Keuchel’s woes could be traced to his delivery.
“It’s getting his momentum and going down the hill in the same place every time,” Hinch says. “It’s like driving a stick shift. You can’t start and stop and start and stop. His rhythm and timing have been off, and it’s hard to execute pitches at a pinpoint level, like he usually does, if his body mechanics are out of whack.”
Keuchel shrugs off what’s being said about his uneven season.
“I feel the same,” he says. “The first inning I felt just as good as I did the first pitch of spring training. I do get ahead of myself sometimes, and I think I don’t finish some pitches. But other than that, I think my delivery has been there.”
Keuchel is bent on making up for lost time.
“I’m about as tough as they come,” he says. “And the guys look to me to kind of turn some things around as a starter. It’s nice to see the other starters do well, but it kind of kills me to see myself fail.”
The Astros are loaded with young offensive talent, and the rest of the rotation has pitched relatively well this season. With nearly four months left, there’s time to get back into the AL West race. Keuchel pitched six scoreless innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 2 before being charged with three runs in the seventh in a 3-0 loss.
Says Hinch, “He was able to be consistent over 33 starts last year with one bad start. This season, not so much. But there is plenty of season left for him to recover.”