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PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan)- Pirates top pitching prospect Mitch Keller made his MLB debut Monday night against the Reds in Cincinnati.
He threw three scoreless innings and racked up seven strikeouts. Only problem was he gave up six earned runs in a disastrous first inning.
"You know, there was good and bad. I mean, obviously it started out bad for him, whether it was nerves, whether it was execution, the first inning just never would end. I'm thankful that it did end, I was seriously worried.
I was thinking, 'Man, would that be awful if he got into the 40-pitch range and they had to take him out.' Luckily, he got that inning done and then he settled down and looked good. I thought his stuff played after the first inning. I think everything slowed down for him a little bit, I thought the arm was a little looser, I think the fastball jumped out of his hand, he had better command of it.
The curveball looked good, he threw a couple nice looking sliders it looked like. You strike out seven in four innings, there's some swing and miss stuff there. There's a power fastball. So I think you let him stick around and give him another turn in five days."
John also said the Pirates have to continue getting Melky Cabrera and Bryan Reynolds at-bats even when Corey Dickerson returns from his long IL stint because of how well they've been hitting.
He also thinks we may have seen the last of Francisco Cervelli's days as the starting catcher for this team.