PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It's a mentality that came to Pirates starter Mitch Keller recently that he put on display in a 2-1 Pirates win in San Diego Tuesday night, breaking a 5-game losing streak.
"Whole mentality, screw it," Keller said. "Next pitch."
"I did pretty well at that tonight. When someone got a hit, I just flushed it and went after the next guy."
Keller went 5.2 scoreless innings on Tuesday giving up a pair of hits, pair of walks and struck out five.
"Trusting my stuff;" Keller said. "Going with the game plan and trusting Stallings back there. I think it helped moving in and out with the fastball as well. I got a lot of 2-1, 3-1 jams, pop-ups. Those help a lot. They keep you in the game and get quick outs."
"That was really nice by Keller tonight," said manager Derek Shelton. "Obviously, really good lineup. Went through it, efficient in the zone."
"We have to command the fastball first with him. For everything else to be effective, we thought going after him with fastballs and commanding that would attribute that to everything else being sharper. He did a really nice job executing."
"I love Mitch," Erik Gonzalez said through translator Mike Gonzalez. "He's one of my favorite pitchers. I know he's nasty. He's got good stuff. He's a good pitcher."
"He's at a stage of his career where he just needs to get more familiar with the league, more familiar with the hitters. Just grow in certain areas."
Keller threw 83 pitches in 2.1 innings in his last start walking 5. It truly is amazing, in starts 1, 3, 5-Keller allowed 14 runs, walking 12 in 8.2 innings. In starts 2, 4, 6-Keller allowed 3 runs, walked 3 and struck out 17 in 15.2 innings.
"Back to work tomorrow, get ready for the next one," Keller said. "I felt really good with my fastball. I think that's the mentality I need to keep going with and we'll just keep working on that throughout the side this week and into the next start."
Creative offense
So the first run fairly normal, Bryan Reynolds takes a 3-2 pitch to center for a RBI double scoring Adam Frazier for a 1-0 lead. It was the first Pirates run in 23 innings.
The creative part was in the sixth, still 1-0, Jacob Stallings trying to protect runner Erik Gonzalez. He hits a dribbler to the second baseman off former teammate Keone Kela. Gonzalez runs through a stop sign by third base coach Joey Cora and in the panic to try and get Gonzalez at home. Eric Hosmer didn't stay on the base, run scored and Stallings got first base, 2-0 Pirates.
"When I noticed the ground ball got hit and the second baseman was directing himself towards first," Gonzalez said. "That's when I recognized I had a shot to go home. The primary goal was to get to third, but when I saw that situation happen, I took a really good read on it and this is my shot to go home."
"It was all on him," Shelton said. "It's instinct. I think being aware of where their middle guys were and who was on the mound. He got a really good jump and didn't stop."
"The backside of that play that you really have to attribute to Stallings is getting down the line hard. If he doesn't get down the line hard on that ball, Hosmer has time to stay on the bag, catch it and make a throw."
Bullpen clutch
Keller left with two outs in the sixth, in comes lefty Sam Howard with runners on first and third and two outs. The lefty reliever gets Hosmer to ground out. This season Howard has stranded all 10 inherited runners.
"Really good job," Shelton said. "He came in and executed pitches. I thought the 2-0 pitch was a really big pitch. Probably one of the biggest outs of the game."
Former Padre David Bednar gives up RBI single in seventh, able to get Fernando Tatis to pop-up with runner on second and 2 outs
Kyle Crick gave up his first baserunner since April 16, but stranded the walk in the eighth. That's 11 innings in 11 games with no runs allowed, one hit and 10 strikeouts.
Richard Rodriguez blazed through the ninth for his fifth save, now 12 games, one hit and no runs in 2021.
Ke'Bryan advancing
Bucs assistant hitting coach Christian Marrero was in the cage with Ke'Bryan Hayes for soft toss & live pitching Tuesday. Shelton confirmed Hayes took 10 overhand pitches from a coach.
"He's coming along, looked pretty good when swinging the bat," Marrero said. "Had some intensity behind the swing & said he felt great," Marrero said.
"Encouraging day for Ke'Bryan and we will just keep going day-by-day with how he's feeling," Shelton said. "Today was the first day he did take overhand throws."
Up Next
Last game of the series in San Diego and looks to be a good pitching matchup with JT Brubaker (2-2, 2.63 ERA) against Yu Darvish (3-1, 2.13 ERA) with a 7 o'clock pregame on the fan and 8:10 first pitch.
