Nationals beat Mitch Keller in shift to pound Pirates, as C Roberto Perez leaves with injury
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Whether it was the lack of command on his off-speed pitches or just plain bad luck, Mitch Keller got the shaft against the shift.
The Washington Nationals repeatedly hit through defensive shifts against Keller on their way to pounding the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-2, on Friday night before 13,076 at PNC Park.
“It was a little bit unlucky, I thought, in that regard,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “A couple of those balls that he got beat in the shift were fastballs that beat guys, and they just beat them into the ground and they ended up going for base hits. I think one of them went for an RBI base hit. That’s just one of the things, you execute a good pitch and sometimes it comes out on the wrong end.”
Keller (0-2) has come out on the wrong end of his first two starts this season, allowing eight runs on 13 hits and five walks with eight strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. He gave up four runs on seven hits — all singles — and three walks against the Nationals.
Keller lasted longer than catcher Roberto Perez, who left the game in the second inning with a left quad contusion after taking a foul tip off his left leg.
“He’s pretty sore,” Shelton said. “I mean, he got hit pretty flush. Fortunately, he was able to get seven or eight innings of treatment. We’ll see how he sleeps tonight and comes in. I would say he’s day to day but he got flushed up pretty good.”
Keller gave up singles to the first four Nationals he faced, with Nelson Cruz and Josh Bell — who both had two hits and three RBIs — driving in runs for a 2-0 first-inning lead. With the Pirates playing the lefty Bell heavy to the right side of the field, he went opposite field and poked a single through the left side to score Juan Soto. Yadiel Hernandez drew a one-out walk to load the bases for Maikel Franco. Franco fouled off three pitches before working a full count but went down swinging. Keller then struck out Lane Thomas to escape the jam.
The Pirates have surrendered 11 runs in the first inning through their first seven games. Keller, who has given up three runs on six hits in his first two starts, was at a loss to explain his first-inning struggles.
“I have no idea,” Keller said. “Anytime out there, I’m attacking from pitch one. It just so happens that to be that the first inning kind of gets me for some reason. I don’t know what it is, but just something to it.”
Despite his four-seam fastball touching 99.7 mph and mixing it with a changeup, Keller had trouble with his curveball and slider command. The Nationals tagged Keller for another run in the second, when Alcides Escobar drew a leadoff walk, stole second, advanced to third on a Soto groundout and scored on a single past Ke’Bryan Hayes at third by Cruz for a 3-0 lead.
Perez took a foul tip off the left knee and left in the bottom of the second, forcing Shelton to use backup Andrew Knapp. Yoshi Tsutsugo led off the second with a single off Erick Fedde (1-0), and Ben Gamel and Knapp drew walks to load the bases for Hoy Park, whose single to shallow left field scored two runs to cut it to 3-2.
After a 1-2-3 third inning, Keller didn’t make it through the fourth. He gave up singles Cesar Hernandez and Soto before Cruz got his third RBI with a broken-bat groundout to third that scored Hernandez to give the Nationals a 4-2 lead. Anthony Banda replaced Keller and got Bell to line out.
The Nationals added another run in the fifth against Miguel Yajure, when Yadiel Hernandez doubled and scored on a double by Lane Thomas to make it 5-2. They stretched their lead to 7-2 after Yajure hit Escobar with a pitch and walked Soto and Cruz to load the bases for Bell, who hit a two-run single to left.
Keller took the loss in stride, believing that he was the victim of some soft hits and bad luck.
“I’m cool with how I’m throwing it right now,” Keller said. “I’m feeling really good. I think it was seven singles. I can’t do anything about some of those. You just have to keep pushing forward.”