Guardians rough up Mitch Keller early, hand Pirates 5th consecutive loss

Seven pitches into his first start since the All-Star Game, Mitch Keller was facing a four-run deficit.

The Cleveland Guardians ambushed the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander, pitching on six days of rest, for five runs in the first inning on their way to a 10-1 win Tuesday night before 21,622 at PNC Park.

“They came out really aggressive and he didn’t come out extremely sharp and left some balls right in the middle the plate,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said, “and they didn’t miss them.”

It was the fifth consecutive loss for the Pirates (41-54), who have dropped 12 of their past 14 games to plummet from first place to the bottom of the NL Central standings in just over a month.

The Guardians have outscored the Pirates, 21-1, through the first two games of the three-game series that concludes Wednesday afternoon. It was only the second time this season the Pirates have allowed double-digit runs in back-to-back games, after losing to the Chicago Cubs, 11-3, on June 13 and 10-6 on June 14 at Wrigley Field.

“Yeah, it’s frustrating,” Keller said. “Obviously, nobody wants to be in the position we’re in. We’ve gotta find some answers. I don’t really know, off the top of my head, what those answers are right now, but we need to find them and we need to find them quick.”

Keller (9-5) gave up eight runs on 10 hits with two walks and only one strikeout in six innings, but refused to blame the long layoff between starts for his poor performance.

“No, I felt really fresh,” Keller said. “I felt really good with everything.”

Cleveland (47-48) finished with 13 hits as five players had multi-hit games, including Josh Naylor, who had two homers and six RBIs.

The Guardians got started when Steven Kwan hit a leadoff double and scored on Amed Rosario’s single to right for a 1-0 lead. Jose Ramirez singled to left, and Naylor hit a low curveball 404 feet to right for a three-run home run. Right fielder Henry Davis bobbled Myles Straw’s single, allowing Josh Bell to score from second to make it 5-0.

In the third, Bell blasted a belt-high cutter for a two-run homer to right to increase Cleveland’s lead to 7-0. In the fourth, Kwan doubled again, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Naylor’s soft grounder to second as the Guardians boosted their lead to 8-0.

“Just felt like they were swinging early, on pretty much everything,” Keller said. “I don’t know. Have to go back and look at it. Just felt like they were on everything. Put some good swings on pitches. I probably could have executed a little bit more.”

Cleveland lefty Logan Allen (4-2), meantime, kept the Pirates hitless through the first four innings. Davis drew a walk in the second inning but ran into a forceout at second. Allen struck out six of the first 11 batters he faced, including Bryan Reynolds twice.

Finally, Jared Triolo singled to left with one out in the fifth to stretch his hitting streak to 11 games, but Allen got Endy Rodriguez and Nick Gonzales to go down swinging.

Eli Morgan replaced Allen in the sixth, and Connor Joe belted a 2-2 changeup 419 feet to center for his seventh home run to cut the Guardians’ lead to 8-1. It was Joe’s first homer since May 30.

“We talked when we were going really well that hitting is contagious. It can also go the opposite way,” Joe said. “Just staying specific to not trying to do too much. Everyone is maybe trying to be the hero every night. (We need to get back to) staying within ourselves and trying to get back to grinding out at-bats and passing the baton.”

The Pirates stranded two runners in scoring position in the seventh after back-to-back singles by Carlos Santana and Davis, who both tagged when right fielder Will Brennan leaned over the short wall in foul territory to catch Triolo’s fly ball. Rodriguez went down swinging again – his sixth strikeout in seven major league at-bats – and Gonzales grounded out to end the inning.

Naylor hit his 15th home run, a 386-foot two-run shot to right off Yohan Ramirez in the ninth, to give the Guardians a 10-1 lead.

The Pirates provided little offense, striking out 11 times, drawing one walk and managing five hits. They started five rookies, who combined to go 2 for 15 at the plate and accounted for eight strikeouts.

“The big leagues is hard. I think we’re seeing that, and we’ve talked about it a lot,” Shelton said. “It’s a challenging game up here, and there’s a lot of good players. They have to stay with it. Don’t let four at-bats, five at-bats, 10 at-bats, whatever, kind of define what your thought process is. We’re gonna go through stretches. We had (five) rookies in the lineup, and it takes a while to get your footing.”