Mitch Keller insisted there wasn't pain, but he also wasn't denying something didn't feel right.
He was removed after two innings of the Pirates' eventual 5-3 loss to the Red Sox on this Tuesday night at PNC Park, with Derek Shelton describing the issue as right shoulder "fatigue," and deeming Keller's status to be "day to day."
But maybe the most compelling point made by anyone was that, at no stage of the evening, including after the game, was Keller known to be experiencing actual pain.
"No, never any indication of pain, no," Shelton replied when I asked about that specifically. "It’s more just fatigue. He felt tired in his shoulder. I think the good thing is there's no pain. But when you start to see as well as he’s transitioned over the last eight weeks and moved down the mound, it did not look clean to me."
It didn't require much expertise. Boston's first six batters reached safely, four on singles and two on walks, with one of those hits coming on this ugly sequence ...
... which, as Shelton confirmed for me, was all about Tucupita Marcano getting a bad break toward that ball from left field and Oneil Cruz sprinting way out from shortstop just shy of what would've been a terrific running catch based on the ground he'd covered to get there.
Another outfield drop in the second by Bryan Reynolds, his first error in 180 games ...
... further contributed to Keller's two-inning pitching line of five runs, four earned, on five hits, three walks and one strikeout. Of his 46 pitches, 28 were strikes.
Oh, and neither the velocity -- his four-seamer averaged 3-4 mph below his norm -- nor his breaking stuff were close to the outstanding standard he'd set in posting a 3.30 ERA over 13 starts since May 31.
Keller confirmed for me that there wasn't pain:
Shelton acknowledged that he and Oscar Marin had "started talking" in the dugout about Keller's well-being as early as the first inning. They visited the mound, along with athletic trainer Tony Leo, in the second. After that inning, they replaced him with Chase De Jong.
"As good as his tempo's been and the attack mode that he’s been in all year, it just didn't look the same," Shelton said of Keller. "We went out and checked on him. He said he didn’t have any pain. But after the second inning, I just didn’t want to risk it because he’s thrown the ball really well. I personally didn’t like the way he was moving."
Nor the product.
“What really stood out was the breaking ball,” Shelton continued. “Just didn't think it was as sharp. The curveball really looked like it got really big. We’ve seen his breaking ball be really tight. When it started to get really big, then the velocity decrease on that was what was more concerning to me.”
He wasn't alone.
“I feel like everybody in the building who was watching knew that my velo was a little bit down and that I was hanging sliders,” Keller said. “Usually, if those sliders are down and away, they’re ground balls, but they were up in the zone, so they got hit a little harder for drives in the gap and we lost some long outs.”
If Keller was worried, he did exceptionally well to hide that.
He couldn't pinpoint anything much that'd gone amiss in his pregame warmups in the bullpen: "Just didn’t feel like it was coming out very hot. Obviously, I don’t know because there’s no velo gun or anything. I felt healthy, felt fine, just didn’t feel like it was jumping out of my hand the way it usually does.”
He also didn't cite anything out of the ordinary after his exit: "We were just doing normal recovery today and then get back, come in tomorrow and evaluate, see where we’re at and see how I feel. I know I’m going to feel fine, because I feel fine right now. It’s just one of those days, I guess.”
All concerned can only hope.
The one positive to emerge from the circumstance was that the bullpen followed with seven scoreless, hitless innings -- De Jong put up four zeroes, followed by two from Austin Brice and one from Manny Bañuelos, all three of the latter's outs by K -- to set a small slice of franchise history: Not since 1893, the year the mound-to-plate distance was set at 60 feet, 6 inches, had the bullpen not allowed a hit when pitching seven-plus innings.
"Our bullpen was outstanding tonight," Shelton said. "Gave us a chance to get back in the game."
