Pirates top prospect Mitch Keller will make major-league debut Monday
Pittsburgh Pirates top prospect Mitch Keller will make his major-league debut Monday when the right-handed pitcher starts the second game of a doubleheader at the Cincinnati Reds, general manager Neal Huntington announced on his weekly radio show.
“We wanted to give him a handful of outings to establish this pitch, not only as a weapon but we wanted him to have confidence in it,” Huntington said Sunday on 93.7 The Fan. “If we don’t have a doubleheader tomorrow, we’re probably not there. Not in a perfect world. But we’re far from a perfect world. We needed a starting pitcher.”
OFFICIAL: We intend to recall RHP Mitch Keller to start the second game in Cincinnati on Monday. #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/PIIhDbjzNX
— Pirates (@Pirates) May 26, 2019
Nick Kingham is scheduled to start the first game of the doubleheader, scheduled to start at 1:10 p.m. against Luis Castillo. That would pit Keller against Sonny Gray (1-4, 3.78 ERA) at 7:10. Jordan Lyles will start for the Pirates on Tuesday night and Steven Brault on Wednesday afternoon.
Keller, 23, was 5-0 with a 3.45 ERA and 1.43 WHIP in nine starts at Triple-A Indianapolis this season. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is ranked the No. 1 prospect in the organization and No. 21 in baseball by MLB Pipeline.
Huntington said last month that the Pirates were waiting to promote Keller as he worked on a third pitch, a slider-cutter hybrid. In his most recent start, a 4-3 victory Tuesday at Louisville, Keller allowed one run on six hits with six strikeouts and one walk in seven innings.
“That’s probably one of the most important things a pitcher needs to incorporate, especially with the degree of difficulty some of these lines provide when you go out there,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “We’ve all talked about how difficult it can be, navigating through a lineup three times. When they’ve only got to hunt two pitches, it becomes easier for them to game plan and to scheme. …
“All of it adds up to more deception, more weapons.”
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Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
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