PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Last year sent to the minors, this season Mitch Keller is the pitcher the team wants on the mound when they need a win. The Bucs ace steps up in a big way in the Pirates 2-0 win over Colorado.
Keller’s first ever MLB complete game and first Pirates complete game shutout in five years. Just what the team needed heading into Monday night on a seven-game losing streak.
“That was a big boy start right there, boys,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said before any questions were asked about Keller’s start. “Wow!”
Keller gave up just four hits and walked one while striking out eight to improve to 4-1 on the season.
“It’s kinda hard to put into words,” Keller said. “I’m still kind of speechless about it. It was really cool. I kinda blacked out, out there after the fifth or sixth (inning). It was really special to do it with these guys in here. We’ve been struggling a little bit, a huge win.”
Keller maintained his stuff throughout the game, with four of the last eight outs coming by way of strikeout. Shelton said he talked with the Pirates pitching coach in the eighth but said with the way Keller was pitching, it was his game all the way.
“That’s as good as it gets right there,” said Pirates catcher Austin Hedges. “The execution was elite, that’s for sure. I was looking at the iPad (between innings) and there were sequences where he was throwing every pitch on the corner, no matter whether it was on the top, in, out or bottom. That’s about as clean as it gets a guy with that type of arsenal.”
The start came at the perfect time for a team that had lost seven in a row, the last couple in blowout fashion. Shelton noted it was a Rockies team playing and swinging the bats well with recent wins over the Mets and Brewers.
“You’re in the midst of a seven-game stretch,” Shelton said. “He goes out and does that, that’s what guys who start opening day do. They go out and stop things like that. He stopped it with an exclamation mark.”
The only runs of the night came in the seventh inning, as Rodolfo Castro took an 0-1 pitch over the centerfield wall for a two-run homer. His first home run of the month and fourth of the season.
“I knew I hit it well, but knowing this ballpark, how big it is, you always have that little bit of doubt,” Castro said. “I knew from the beginning that I hit it good. It was just a matter if it was going to go out or not.”
"It gives us confidence, just getting things going back the other way,” said Pirates 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes. “For Mitch, I think that was his first complete game in the big leagues. So, just super happy for him to be able to achieve that. Now that it's over, we just got to get ready for tomorrow and come out striking right away again."
Third fastest at PNC Park
The game lasted one hour and 55 minutes, the third fastest game in ballpark history, beaten only by a game in 2004 (1:47) and 2007 (1:51).
“Awesome it’s the best,” Hedges said. “We could do that all-day, every day. My legs feel amazing. I crouched for, like, 12 minutes today. I told Mitch, ‘Dude, it’s like 8:30 right now.’”
“Pitchers’ duels, they usually go pretty quick,” Keller said. “But, even with the pitch clock, that’s unbelievably fast. Guys were joking in here, like, ‘That was the quickest game ever. Thanks.’ I was like, ‘Alright. No problem, man. That’s what I was going for.’
Up Next
It is ‘anticipated’ RHP Luis Ortiz (2-1, 2.23 ERA, 29 K in 32.1 IP in AAA) will make his season debut against RHP Connor Seabold (0-0, 5.30 ERA) with the North Shore Tavern Leadoff Show with Dan Zangrilli at 5:35 and first pitch at 6:35 on 93.7 The Fan.