One Pitch Key For Keller in Needed Rebound Outing (+)
PITTSBURGH — Coming into Friday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates’ All-Star starting pitcher Mitch Keller had been stuck in a bit of a rut.
Actually, it was a pretty big rut which dates back further than his post-All-Star Game struggles in his first two outings of the second half.
Dating back to May 26, Keller had an ERA of 5.51 (40er/65.1ip) over his last 11 starts.
On Friday night, Keller looked much more like the pitcher who earned his first-ever All-Star appearance.
“Oh yeah, feels good,” Keller said. “Definitely needed a good one after two rough ones. Yeah, just felt more in a groove, attacked the zone a lot better. And yeah, just was able to finish better.”
The lone blemish on Keller’s line came when he hung a first-pitch breaking ball to Kyle Schwarber, who deposited the pitch into the Phillies’ bullpen for a two-run homer.
Outside of that, Keller was masterful. The right-hander held the Phillies to the two runs across 5.2 innings. He allowed six hits, walked three and struck out eight batters.
Prior to walking Alec Bohm and being lifted in favor of left-hander Ryan Borucki in the sixth, Keller had sat down four in a row on strikes.
There was one reason in particular that made Keller so effective on Friday night.
“The sweeper… It looked like in the fourth, fifth and sixth that the sweeper really had a ton of action to it. It’s probably as good as we’ve seen it in a while,” manager Derek Shelton said.
The sweeper, a relatively new pitch in the arsenal of Keller, has been a pitch of great importance for him. When it’s on, Keller looks as good as he has in his career.
Keller had it working against Philadelphia and the results speak for themselves.
While it’s categorized as one pitch, Keller is able to use it in different ways at times to help him keep opposing hitters off balance.
“I felt like I had some in the tank, more in the tank when I needed it here and there,” he said. “But specifically on the sweeper, there were times I would throw it harder or slower depending on the situation on what I was trying to do with it.”
Though the Pirates ended up losing the game to the Phillies by a final tally of 2-1, Keller did exactly what he needed to do with a pitcher like Zack Wheeler as his counterpart.
Wheeler was fantastic against the Pirates, holding them to a lone run and striking out 11 across 6.2 innings pitched for the Phillies.
Still, Keller hung tough with the talented veteran.
“Yeah, I mean, he’s unbelievable,” said Keller. “He was really solid again tonight. He’s been really good for years, so just to be able to go toe to toe with him for a while there was really cool.”
Thanks to his outing, Keller’s season ERA fell back below the 4.00 mark, now residing at 3.97.
Keller’s next turn in the rotation comes on Aug. 3 against the Brewers in Milwaukee, and he will look to do more of what he did on Friday night in hopes of finishing the season on a high note.
If the sweeper was as good as it was in this one, I wouldn’t bet against him.