There’s been enough trouble in Mitch Keller’s season for his frustrations to rightfully turn to anger. After another difficult outing Thursday afternoon against the Dodgers, Keller did say that he will try to take the positives into his next start -- and there will be a next start. But with a little more prodding, he opened up about his true state of mind.
“I'm probably the most [sic]-off guy in this locker room.”
Keller was erratic, yet predictable and did not make it out of the third inning of the Pirates’ 6-3 loss to the defending World Series champions. The sweep puts the Pirates at 23-38 on the season with five wins over their past 15 games, all but two of which were played at PNC Park.
The 25-year-old Keller had a busy line in the box score in just 2 ⅔ innings, allowing four runs on five hits, three walks and two hit batters. He struck out three and threw 41 of 72 pitches for strikes.
The paradoxical season for Keller finally veered off course. That pattern of following each effective start with a clunker has made for a largely inconsistent (there’s your paradox, kids) season as a whole. But when he finally broke the pattern in the series finale at PNC Park, it went in the opposite direction of the Pirates would have liked.
“I think we have a good plan. It's just me going out and executing,” Keller said. “Just executing pitches is what it boils down to. Executing and getting ahead. When I do that, I'm pretty good. When I don't, stuff like that happens today."
Attacking the zone is one thing, but it’s been the command of the fastball that’s been the common thread in each of Keller’s difficult starts this year.
Sometimes he leaves one on a tee for a guy that his manager describes as one of the two best players in baseball.
Sometimes it’s missing the zone entirely, hitting Justin Turner in the foot with an 0-2 pitch. Either way, both Keller and Derek Shelton agree that it’s the fastball command that’s been his Achilles heel this season. They’ve discovered the root cause, but they just don’t have an answer.
“If I did, I probably would have cleaned it up by now,” Keller said, more perturbed than usual.
It’s difficult to put Keller’s most recent start from this past Friday against the Marlins into the clunker category without an important caveat. He was removed after just two innings due to what was described as heat illness. He then required a stint on the COVID-IL, which lasted just two days. But he didn’t look that great before getting overheated either.
Keller said he was feeling light-headed, then he needed to stay away from the ballpark for a couple days to undergo COVID testing.
The Pirates probably have their reasons for not pushing Keller’s turn in the rotation by even a day at the very least. According to Shelton, that wasn’t even under consideration. But it’s odd to see them stick with him under these circumstances.
Each game of the series was met with some sort of rain delay making the conditions on the North Shore were muggy and humid all week. The 81 degree temperature at first pitch was the highest in the series as the rain clouds swelled before the game was delayed for 75 minutes in the eighth inning.
Rather than having the guy that just exited his previous start because of the heat pitch in a day game, the Pirates might have benefitted from pushing him back just one day. On Friday, they’ll be on the road in a temperature-controlled setting during a night game at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
The past couple games against the Dodgers were underscored by the Pirates trying to figure out how to make best use of the players in the outfield and rotation that have little to no standing on their future. But this is not that.
Keller was one of the most important players on this roster when they broke camp, both for the present and long term. He’s proven to be capable of pitching as well as anybody in this league, but he’s mostly been inconsistent and frustrating.
Shelton was asked if the next steps in properly figuring out what’s really going wrong for Keller involved a turn in the minors or the bullpen and shot down the ideas almost immediately.
“We need to continue to work on what we’re working on here,” Shelton said. “We have to isolate on why and then how it needs to transfer into games.”
When a specific issue persists there creates a bit of a splash zone for the burden of responsibility. In doing what seems like the same thing every five days, it’s enough to question whether or not the Pirates are putting Keller in the best position to succeed.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• It’s not all bad news on the North Shore.
There will probably be a daily Ke’Bryan Hayes update on this website for the next few years. A day after an impressive showdown against Kenley Jansen, Hayes showed just how good he can be with the glove:
That play is a lot tougher than Hayes made it look.
“This kid does stuff defensively that surprises me on a nightly basis,” Shelton said. “Some of it he makes it look so routine that, to the average fan or person, that’s a good play. It’s like, ‘No, that’s a great play.’ Tonight, that was one of ‘em.”
This happened about two minutes before that very tarp was unfurled and placed on the field. It had rained sporadically throughout the game, but was definitely coming down significantly as Hayes had his eyes up looking to track this one. Even without the rain, that’s a long distance to cover, and just a difficult play to make all around.
Running on a wet slippery ground with walls, nets and rolled-up tarps in the way made for uncomfortable terrain for Hayes to traverse. And for the manager who had just been without his best player for two months, the experience of watching the play is nerve-wracking.
“I was definitely holding my breath on that one,” Shelton said.
The 24-year-old also doubled in this game. He’s 10-for-29 with four extra-base hits, four runs scored and three RBIs in seven games since returning from the injured list.
• There’s been a lot made of the season the Pirates are getting out of their bullpen. And rightfully so, considering both the season they’re having and the well-documented struggles of the rotation.
With that being said, there’s definitely a future at the back-end of a bullpen for David Bednar.
The Mars, Pa. native, pitched in front of a group of Mars Little Leaguers sitting by the first-base dugout Thursday afternoon.
“They all came by the bullpen. I think they said they were fourth, fifth graders and there were a few second graders in there,” said Bednar, who has endeared himself to the hometown crowd. “It seems like everybody has a connection in some way, so it's always cool to come by the bullpen and say what's up.”
For the second consecutive night, he recorded a pair of late-inning outs without allowing a hit.
Bednar can hover his fastball right around 99 mph and bend as nasty a curveball as anyone will show around this league. Including this hook that struck out Chris Taylor to end the seventh.
Bednar, 26, has a 2.74 ERA and is one of three members of that bullpen -- Clay Holmes and Sam Howard being the others -- with more than 25 appearances this season.
“Whenever you're out there more and more, it gives you more confidence and kind of helps you build off of that, earn the trust of your coaches and also your teammates to get the job done,” Bednar said.
As Wednesday night examined the state of the rotation should its best innings-eater, Tyler Anderson, be traded before the deadline, it’s worth looking at the state of the bullpen should its present closer, Richard Rodriguez, and setup man, Kyle Crick, also be dealt.
One of those roads should lead to Bednar as the team’s closer, even if Shelton doesn’t like to formally label those roles.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the Pirates, as they say, “cover” all those innings in the second half of the season. And odds are that Shelton won’t have the luxury of holding off on a guy to wait for a save situation in the second half.
But perhaps next season, “Renegade,” might be an opening act for "Pirates' generation."
• The Pirates may have received some good news regarding Colin Moran’s hand injury. He was not available off the bench Thursday, and Shelton would not explicitly say that imaging done to the area came back negative. But there was some optimism.
“We’re still day to day on it and it’s kind of going to be the pain tolerance,” the skipper said.
Alex Stumpf examined where the Pirates would be without Moran (again) on Wednesday night. But this plan seems to be curious as well since the Pirates are already working with a short bench.
There was another injury announced Thursday as Luis Oviedo was placed on the IL with a left quad strain. Trevor Cahill was reinstated in his place and will remain a bullpen option for the time being.
THE ESSENTIALS
Boxscore
Scoreboard
Standings
Statistics
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
Adam Frazier, 2B
Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
Bryan Reynolds, CF
Jacob Stallings, C
Phillip Evans, RF
Erik Gonzalez, 1B
Ka'ai Tom, LF
Kevin Newman, SS
Mitch Keller, P
And for Dave Roberts' Dodgers:
Mookie Betts, RF
Max Muncy, 1B
Justin Turner, 3B
Cody Bellinger, CF
Matt Beaty, LF
Zach McKinstry, 2B
Gavin Lux, SS
Austin Barnes, C
Julio Urias, P
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates hit the road for six game beginning with a three-game set in Milwaukee starting Friday night before reuniting with Josh Bell in Washington. Chase De Jong (0-0, 5.40) gets the start against a Cy Young hopeful in Brandon Woodruff (4-2, 1.42), with first pitch scheduled for 8:10 p.m. Eastern. I will be with you in Milwaukee and Alex will meet you in Washington.
THE CONTENT
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