CHICAGO -- Of course, three games is by no means a yardstick by which to measure a club’s strengths and inefficiencies. But through the first series of the season, their more glaring problems fit the profile the club brought into the season.
Mitch Keller was wild on the mound and the Pirates fell into too many quiet stretches offensively during a 4-3 loss to the Cubs on Sunday at Wrigley Field. Keller (0-1) lived up to the scouting report of being both difficult to hit and easy to reach base against in his season debut.
The 25-year-old issued four walks and allowed a pair of runs on as many hits. He lasted only three innings and needed 77 pitches to get through the outing.
Beyond Keller’s struggles, there was a more troublesome pattern displayed by the offense that appeared over the end of the series. The Pirates put just three runners on base between the sixth inning of Saturday’s 5-1 loss and the sixth inning Sunday. With the club’s best hitter, Ke’Bryan Hayes, hitting the injured list early with left wrist soreness, it’s going to take a lot to prevent this team from finishing dead last in overall batting for the second consecutive season.
After mustering just two base runners through the first six innings Sunday, it was encouraging to see things start to turn around.
“I think we were just tired of getting out,“ said Phillip Evans, who singled three times and drove in a run while playing Hayes’ spot at third. “Some calls didn’t go our way, but that’s baseball. We’ll get them next time we're in town.”
As they showed Sunday, the resurgence at the plate starts with Bryan Reynolds.
Reynolds saw just six pitches from Zach Davies (1-0) and struck out in each of his first two at-bats. But he rebounded with hits in the sixth and eighth inning to set up run-scoring situations for the Pirates.
“He was able to calm himself down and use the other side of the field,” Derek Shelton said. “That’s Bryan Reynolds.”
It’ll also be imperative that Colin Moran picks up some of the slack. Which, of course, he did Sunday. The big lefty went to the opposite field with authority twice in the comeback effort. He delivered a two-run shot in the sixth inning and doubled to the corner in the eighth. Both times following Reynolds.
“I give our offense a ton of credit,” Shelton said. “They kept us in the game. It was a good game. They continue to grind. We gave ourselves opportunities.”
With the expanded bullpen and a lot of innings to eat up after the pandemic shortened season, there are going to be players getting more opportunities off the bench. Evans, who was Sunday’s fill-in for Hayes at third base, seems to be the first one ready to step up.
Evans, who worked a lot at first base and in right field this spring under the assumption that Hayes had usurped him at his natural position, committed a costly error at third that scored a decisive run. The Pirates have committed five errors already this season. That obviously isn’t going to help any team win ball games.
Sure, it’s just three games. And losing their best hitter isn’t going to help. And, for Keller, it’s just one outing. But he’s shown this type of performance on the mound plenty of times before.
Over Keller’s final two starts of the 2020 season, he pitched 11 hitless innings and struck out nine. But he also walked 10 batters during that stretch, eight of which came in the finale against Cleveland.
It’s been that end-of-year performance, and his pedigree as the club’s former top prospect that’s allowed him to continue getting the benefit of the doubt when the results aren’t there. But even in the spring, Keller didn’t deviate much from what’s become his norm.
“It’s definitely not a mental issue. Just got to attack the zone, fill it up more and get ahead in counts,” Keller said. “That’s what it comes down to. Just throwing a lot of pitches and getting behind in counts. I’ve got to turn it around.”
But this early in the season, even Keller’s problems seem fixable. He showed that Sunday in two battles with Javier Baez that ended a pair of Cubs’ rallies in the first and third innings. He threw a 2-2 fastball past Baez in the opening inning ...
... then stuck with his safety blanket, the slider, to get him to fly the final out to right.
“It was a big pitch for me today. I had the most feel with that one today,” Keller said of his slider, which was hit 428 feet to center field by Ian Happ when left in a bad spot to start the third. “Just learning what I need to do for pitch selection, pitch usage. That's all going to come through reps, just the more times I do it, the more times I can experience it and know what works and what doesn't work.”
It’s no secret that the starting pitching is going to need all of the help they can get this season. Out of the group that’s there, Keller has clearly flashed the most potential.
During the pandemic-shortened season, Keller showed how difficult he can be on opposing batters. He pitched to a 2.91 ERA in 21.2 innings, and four homers could account for all but two of the seven runs he allowed. His .132 opponents batting average ranked fifth among all major league pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched last season.
This problem of issuing so many free passes has prevented him from reaching even a fraction of his potential. It’s already required a ton of patience, and he’s going to need to ask for more. But at this point, those experiments will have to be conducted during the regular season.
“Just looking at video. We’ve honed in on some things that I’ve been working on, and just really working on those things during my side prep and in between outings and playing catch,” Keller said. “So I really have focused on those things, and hopefully, it will translate over here in the games. So I feel really good. Felt great out there, just falling behind.”
It’s difficult at this point to determine if these troubles will persist for the Pirates. And it’s even more difficult to predict whether or not they’ll be worked out. But either way, the first three games have identified both problems and solutions for some sort of winning formula.
MORE FROM THIS GAME
• The bullpen capped its strong series and kept the Pirates in the game with six one-run innings Sunday. Duane Underwood Jr. was tagged for the score on Evans' error in the fifth. After a perfect fourth, Underwood, who struck out the side in his debut with the club Thursday, became the first Pirates' reliever to go beyond one inning of work. Kyle Crick made his season debut with a scoreless inning. Crick showed some rust and uncorked a couple wild breaking balls to the backstop after starting on the COVID-IL following the birth of his daughter, Kolly, last week. Sam Howard also struggled with his command and walked the two batters he faced in the fifth. But he worked out of a bases loaded jam with a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning. David Bednar and Chris Stratton both recorded a scoreless inning.
Boxscore
Video highlights
Scoreboard
Standings
Statistics
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
Adam Frazier, 2B
Kevin Newman, SS
Bryan Reynolds, LF
Colin Moran, 1B
Phillip Evans, 3B
Gregory Polanco, RF
Michael Perez, C
Anthony Alford, CF
Mitch Keller, P
And for David Ross' Cubs:
Ian Happ, CF
Willson Contreras, C
Anthony Rizzo, 1B
Kris Bryant, 3B
Joc Pederson, LF
Javier Baez, SS
Jason Heyward, RF
Eric Sogard, 2B
Zach Davies, P
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates open a three-game set in Cincinnati on Monday at 6:40 p.m. ET. JT Brubaker, the Ohio kid, gets his first start of the season against right-hander Jose De Leon to start the series. Alex Stumpf will have you covered from Great American Ball Park.
THE CONTENT
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