Mitch Keller picked up where he left off in the Month of May, on the first day of June, with a dominant performance against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Keller was faced with early danger in the bottom of the first inning. After the Pirates had a 3-0 lead, Toronto had second and third with two outs and Daniel Vogelbach at the plate. Keller was ahead 1 ball and 2 strikes but then threw two balls to make it full count. He threw a 94 mph cutter that tied up Vogelbach for the striekout to escape the jam.
He struck out 8 batters in 6 innings of work, allowing just one run on five hits. Keller extended his streak to 43 straight starts of pitching 5 innings or more, the longest active streak in the MLB. It is Keller's 5th straight start where he earned the win.
"That was a gritty performance by him," said manager Derek Shelton. "I thought the first three or four innings he really struggled with his command. A lot of credit to Mitch and I'm going to give a lot of credit to Yas (Grandal). Yas did an unbelievable job getting Mitch through that game because he battled back and forth with his stuff."
After his second start of the season, Keller had a 6.55 era. Since that time, he has dropped it to 3.42 and has a record of 7-3. He went 4-0 with a 1.30 era In May. His 8 strikeouts against Toronto is one fewer than his season high 9 he had against the Tigers on April 8.
"We talk about the things we've seen from him the last three or four years. Two years ago, that start gets away from him. Today it doesn't. He stays under control, continues to make pitches, uses his defense and doesn't try to do too much. That's a sign of what good veteran pitchers do," said Shelton.
The Pirates lost in disappointing fashion Friday against the Blue Jays after a 14 inning 5-3 defeat thanks to a walkoff home run from Davis Schneider. Saturday, the offense jumped on Yusei Kikuchi for 5 earned runs on 9 hits. Ke'Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds both hit two-run homers and Jared Triolo went 3-4 in the 8-1 win.
"When the offense puts up the run support they put up it makes my job a lot easier to just go to try to fill it up and get weak contact, let the defense work out there," said Keller. "Whenever they're putting up runs and you're pitching behind that it makes it a lot easier."
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