Pirates Takeaways: Keller Was Efficient; Pirates Can’t Close Games Out (+)
PITTSBURGH– The Pittsburgh Pirates were a part of yet another close game on Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals, and like usual, they fell in heartbreaking fashion.
One of the bright spots for the Pirates on Sunday afternoon was the play of starting pitcher Mitch Keller. Keller, through a gem with seven shutout innings and only giving up one true hit. For those who didn’t watch, Rodolfo Castro kicked a ball while playing second base in the second inning, which was scored a single for Lars Nootbaar.
Keller gave up just one more hit in the sixth inning to Tommy Edman, marking this start, one of the best Keller has been a part of this season.
“It was just one of those days where everything was working, and I felt good,” said Keller during the post-game. “Every spin pitch I had was working really good. My four-seam and two-seam played really well. When you can get a good pitch mix going, it’s going to be a good day.”
One of the aspects of Keller’s game on Sunday was the efficiency in how he operated on the mound. Although Keller allowed three walks, he got through a large portion of the game without throwing a ton of pitches.
“[Keller] executed all of his pitches,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “His slider was good, he moved his fastball to different quadrants, and he was in control all game. Keller was extremely efficient, with 62 pitches thrown through the sixth. Keller had to grind a little bit in the seventh, but he stayed in attack mode and got some ground balls and good defense behind him.”
In a season that is lost in terms of making the playoffs or even having a respectable record, it is encouraging to see outings like the one Keller gave us on Sunday.
Keller has now gone 15 straight innings of shutout baseball, which surpasses Jose Quintana’s 14 straight shutout innings from May 9-21.
Can’t Close Out
The Pittsburgh Pirates had a lead in each of the three games against the Cardinals. Besides game one, the Pirates bullpen had a hiccup, and there was no bigger hiccup than Chase De Jong’s outing Sunday afternoon.
In the top of the ninth, the Pirates held a 2-0 lead, and since Wil Crowe pitched on Saturday and threw a ton of pitches, it was De Jong’s turn to close it out.
Right off the bat De Jong gave up two straight doubles, and the Pirates were nursing a 2-1 lead.
Albert Pujols came up to the plate with 696 career home runs, and on the third pitch of the at-bat, he had 697, giving the Cardinals a 3-2 lead.
“It was a very frustrating loss,” said Shelton. “We had the lead going into the eighth inning in all three games, and we didn’t finish because we didn’t execute pitches. In all defense to [De Jong], he has been our best reliever for two months. This was the only outing during that time where he did not throw the ball effectively.”
Shelton wanted to clarify that De Jong has gotten the Pirates out of more jams than not over the past two months.
Good At-Bats
Jack Suwinski hit his 16th homer Sunday afternoon, and he’s starting to string together some really encouraging at-bats and stat lines.
Over his past 25 at-bats, Suwinski is batting .320/.370/.560 with six strikeouts.
“[Suwiski] gave some really good at-bats again,” said Shelton. “It’s not just Suwinski either, [Cal Mitchell] is having good at-bats, and [Oneil Cruz] and [Rodolfo Castro] continue to have good at-bats.”