Mitch Keller gives up 2 home runs as Cardinals beat Pirates to win series

Mitch Keller has had an impressive stretch of streaks for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but the one that came to an end against the St. Louis Cardinals proved to be the difference in the game.

Keller hadn’t surrendered more than one home run in a game since Sept. 20 at the Chicago Cubs. But the Pirates right-hander gave up one to Paul Goldschmidt that boosted the Cardinals to a two-run lead and a second one that served as the game winner.

Brendan Donovan’s solo shot to lead off the sixth inning broke a tie to give the Cardinals a 4-3 victory Thursday afternoon at Busch Stadium. They clinched a three-game series win against their NL Central rivals, as the Pirates (32-36) dropped their sixth straight rubber match.

“As good as he’s been, he wasn’t overly sharp today,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Keller on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “He left a couple balls in the middle of the plate, and they were able to capitalize and hit the ball out of the ballpark.”

Keller (8-4) completed six innings for the seventh consecutive start but gave up four runs on eight hits — including a pair of triples — with four strikeouts for his first loss since April 30. It was his most runs allowed since giving up four in a 7-5 loss to Milwaukee on April 25.

“I didn’t really have my best stuff on really any pitch,” Keller said, “so it was just a grind out there, finding a way to get through it.”

The Pirates, by contrast, failed to produce an extra-base hit, didn’t have a player with a multi-hit game in the series and stranded eight runners.

After a six-pitch first inning, Keller hit Donovan with two outs in the second and allowed Jose Fermin a single to put a runner in scoring position. But Keller escaped on a Pedro Pages flyout to center.

When Masyn Winn tripled to the right-center gap with one out in the third, Keller responded by striking out Alec Burleson on three pitches. Goldschmidt worked a full count, then smashed a cutter over the middle 404 feet to center for his eighth home run and a 2-0 lead. It was the seventh homer surrendered by Keller this season but the first since May 6, when Zach Neto of the Los Angeles Angels hit a solo shot.

“There’s a reason why he’s Paul Goldschmidt,” Keller said of the seven-time All-Star first baseman and 2022 NL MVP. “He took advantage of a 3-2 cutter I threw in the middle, trying to challenge him and he made me pay for it.”

The Pirates didn’t get their first hit off Cardinals starter Lance Lynn until two outs in the fourth, when Edward Olivares singled to right. Rowdy Tellez followed with another single to put runners on first and third, but Lynn got Jared Triolo swinging at a fastball on the outside corner.

The Cardinals scored three of their four runs with two outs, and they did more two-out damage in the fourth. Fermin hit a sharp grounder down the third-base line that pinballed past Jack Suwinski in the left-field corner for a triple, then scored on a single to right by Pages for a 3-0 lead.

The Pirates finally got to Lynn in the fifth, when Suwinski drew a leadoff walk, Yasmani Grandal singled to right and Michael A. Taylor walked to load the bases. Lynn struck out Ke’Bryan Hayes, but Bryan Reynolds hit a comebacker that bounced off Lynn’s leg. Instead of an inning-ending double play, Suwinski scored from third to cut it to 3-1 as Reynolds reached safely.

The Cardinals turned to lefty John King to face Oneil Cruz, who was limping after rolling his surgically repaired left ankle coming out of the batter’s box on a groundout in the fourth. Cruz responded by slapping a two-run, opposite-field single to left to tie the score.

“He rolled it pretty good coming out of the box,” Shelton said. “He came back and had a really big at-bat, a base hit with the bases loaded. We’ll continue to monitor him. We know he’s had the issue with being sore, so we’ll just continue to watch it.”

Keller stranded a pair of runners in the fifth to stretch his streak of consecutive starts of five innings or more to 45, but Donovan smacked a 2-1 cutter 372 feet to right for his fifth homer to give the Cardinals a 4-3 lead in the sixth.

“Donovan’s just a good cutter hitter,” Keller said. “I threw him a good cutter — it was probably one of my best ones of the day — and he got it.”

Pirates lefty Justin Bruihl relieved Keller for the seventh and completed the first 1-2-3 inning since the opening frame. In the eighth, Hunter Stratton motioned for assistant trainer Tony Leo after throwing a strike to Brendan Donovan, clutching his right arm. Shelton said Stratton said the shoulder was tight, so the Pirates didn’t want to risk further injury.

That forced Shelton to turn to righty Dennis Santana, who was activated before the game after being claimed off waivers from the New York Yankees on Tuesday. In his Pirates debut, Santana got Donovan to ground out to second and pinch hitter Dylan Carlson to pop up to short.

With closer Ryan Helsley unavailable, the Cardinals used righty Andrew Kittredge in the ninth. Hayes, who had been 0 for 12 in the series, ended his drought with a two-out single to right. But Kittredge got Reynolds to ground out to short to end the game and record his first save for the Cardinals.

Shelton was careful not to be critical of Keller, who has been a workhorse for the Pirates this season.

“He still gave us a chance to win the game,” Shelton said. “We still had opportunities to win the game, and that’s really all you ask for out of a starter. He’s been so good over the last seven or eight starts that it’s hard to expect that he’s going to be that good every time out.”