PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - The month of May has been extremely good to Mitch Keller after a 4-0 record and a 1.30 ERA.
Keller shut down the Atlanta Braves lineup on Saturday. He threw 6.2 IP, struck out 4 batters and only allowed one earned run. It was Keller's 4th straight quality start and he improved his record to 6-3 on the season.
He was 2-3 in the month of April and had an ERA over 5.0 due to two tough starts to begin the year. Since then, Keller held hitters to a batting average of .212 in the month of May and only allowed 4 earned runs.
The game was delayed due to rain for 25 minutes and then in the 5th inning another delay for a half hour, but that didn't stop Keller from pitching when the delay came to an end.
"I noticed it started getting dark and then I went out there for the 5th and got through it. I didn't know what was going to happen, I thought it was going to miss us. And then, two outs, it just seemed random when they pulled it," said Keller on the Mt. Pleasant Window & Remodeling Post Game Show. "I was kind of pissed, I thought my day was going to be over. I immediately went up to the cage and was throwing balls against the net trying to stay loose. Thankfully it was short enough that I was able to go back out."
The way Keller is positioned in the rotation, he pitches after a lefty (Bailey Falter) and then before another lefty (Martin Perez). He says it's an advantage for him against lineups.
"Bailey is a complete opposite pitcher than me from being left handed to even what he's throwing, like fastball and slider from the left side and then I got a full arsenal of pitches from the right handed slot. I think it plays to our advantage," said Keller.
Derek Shelton said in postgame that Keller coming back out after the rain delay was massive.
"The story of that game is the fact that he went out and got us 5 outs," said Shelton. "Matt Brown our groundskeeper did a really good job. He called it, I know when we stop and it's not raining everybody is panicked but he was saying hey it's right on top of us, it's heavy winds and it got through quick. Personally I was hoping he would get us 3 outs and the fact that he got us 5 outs was huge and I mean that's the story of the game."
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