Pirates squander Mitch Keller's 7 scoreless innings as Diamondbacks get walk-off win

For almost six innings, Mitch Keller was unhittable. For seven innings, the All-Star right-hander held the Arizona Diamondbacks scoreless.

What Keller started, the Pittsburgh Pirates couldn’t finish.

The Diamondbacks tied the score on an Alek Thomas solo home run in the eighth inning, and Corbin Carroll hit a bases-loaded single off All-Star closer David Bednar in the bottom of the 10th for a 3-2 walk-off win Saturday afternoon at Chase Field in Phoenix.

“It sucks anytime you lose,” Keller said. “We played a good game. We battled. It sucks coming out on the other end.”

It was the fourth consecutive loss for the Pirates (40-49), who have lost seven of their past eight and can’t wait for the All-Star break. They are 20-41 since being in first place in the NL Central on April 29.

Scott McGough, a 33-year-old right-hander from Plum, earned his first major league victory as the NL West-leading Diamondbacks (52-38) used seven pitchers who combined for 14 strikeouts, six looking.

“Today was almost like a spring training day, where you never see the same guy twice,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Arizona’s bullpen game. “They have may have seen one guy twice. That’s challenging. The one thing they did really well was they threw a ton of strikes. They were ahead the entire time. When you’re ahead, you’re able to execute your off-speed stuff for putaway.”

Keller allowed only one hit with five walks and four strikeouts but received a no-decision when Colin Holderman gave up a solo homer to Thomas in the eighth. That prevented Keller from becoming the first Pirates pitcher to earn double-digit wins entering the All-Star break since Gerrit Cole in 2015.

Keller’s 129 strikeouts are the most in the National League and the third-most before the All-Star break in Pirates history behind Bob Veale, who had 137 in 1965 and 134 in 1966.

“Mitch pitched great,” Shelton said. “Only one hit, executed all game long, worked around a couple walks. He threw about as well as you can throw it.”

The Pirates didn’t provide much run support, as they had a scoring chance snuffed out on a play at the plate in the third inning. Henry Davis drew a two-out walk before Bryan Reynolds recorded the Pirates’ first hit, a double to left that was stopped by a sliding Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Davis was waved home by third base coach Mike Rabelo, but Gurriel bounced up and hit the cut-off man, shortstop Geraldo Perdomo, who made a pinpoint throw to Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno to tag Davis while sliding head-first into home plate.

The Pirates scored in the sixth, when Jason Delay drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a Reynolds groundout and scored on Jack Suwinski’s double that bounced over the right-field fence for a 1-0 lead.

Keller, meantime, took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before it was broken up when Ketel Marte smacked a two-out single to right field. Keller walked Carroll to put runners on first and second but got Christian Walker to fly out to center to escape unscathed.

Shelton credited Keller’s execution of all the pitches, given that his cutter, sweeper and fastball were working. That’s especially true of the sweeper, which drew 13 swings and four called strikes.

“That’s a really good team over there that can cause some challenges for you,” Shelton said, “and he did a good job neutralizing them.”

After seven innings, Keller had thrown 99 pitches (57 strikes), so Shelton turned to the bullpen. The move almost immediately backfired when Thomas sent Holderman’s second pitch, a 1-0 cutter, 377 feet into the right field seats for his fourth home run to tie the game at 1-1.

The Diamondbacks turned to McGough in the ninth inning, and he struck out the side by retiring the heart of the order — Reynolds, Suwinski and Santana — the latter two on called third strikes. Bednar retired the Diamondbacks in order in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings.

Ji-Man Choi hit a leadoff single in the 10th to put runners at first and third, and Carlos Santana scored on Jared Triolo’s single to right for a 2-1 lead. With two outs and runners on second and third, Diamondbacks first baseman Walker made a diving stop on a Josh Palacios grounder down the line to stop the Pirates from scoring a pair of runs.

In the bottom of the 10th, pinch hitter Jake McCarthy laid down a sacrifice bunt, and Bednar made an errant throw to first to put runners on the corners. Thomas followed with a grounder that pulled Santana off the bag, but Bednar didn’t cover, allowing Dominic Canzone to score the tying run.

“We’re not getting Thomas,” Shelton said. “Santana makes a heck of a play leaving his feet. We’re going to be making a backwards flip to Beddy anyway. With the way Thomas runs, we were going to have no chance on it.”

Geraldo Perdomo advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt, and Bednar intentionally walked Marte to load the bases. Carroll hit a 2-2 curveball in the dirt to right field to drive in the winning run.

“We’re picking our poison,” Shelton said. “We know we’re getting to Carroll there and we’re trying to create the force, trying to get a punchout with Beddy and we got the foul tip we didn’t catch. You can’t hang your hat on that. Then they put the ball in play.”