ST. LOUIS – Cole Tucker thought he had it tracked. That’s why he bumped into the wall in right field before watching Paul DeJong’s fly ball land not far away, but in the Cardinals’ bullpen.
Tucker said he felt the ball carried out to right today. Perhaps it’s a different outcome if the wind was in Keller’s favor. Or if the 377-foot fly ball was hit a little more to center. Or, as Keller would point out…
“If I can get strike one to DeJong, maybe that whole at-bat is different," he said. "But, who knows?”
In reality, it was a two-run homer, the winning RBIs in the Pirates’ 6-2 loss to the Cardinals Saturday at Busch Stadium.
Keller, still stretching out for the season after the abbreviated spring, was limited to four innings and allowed four runs on six hits and two walks. After the hype of his viral bullpen sessions and strong spring training outings, it was an underwhelming regular season debut for the more confident, better stuff Keller.
That doesn’t mean you should flush the start or write off what Keller did this offseason because of the first four innings of the season. His fastball averaged 96.2 mph, up 2.4 mph from a year ago and got nine whiffs. Only twice last year did he get that many swings and misses in comparison to the number of pitches he threw.
“There are definitely signs of improvement from last year, what he worked on, and then from Spring Training,” Derek Shelton said. “We just have to make sure that we start there.”
Keller didn’t start out on the right foot, admitting to some first game jitters out of the gate. Nolan Arenado got the Cardinals on the board with an RBI double, putting two runners in scoring position.
Keller would get more aggressive from there and go after Corey Dickerson and DeJong with fastballs, getting a weak grounder to third and a strikeout to prevent another run.
“If I would do it again, I would like to do it all over again and get right on the attack and trust my stuff a little bit more there in the first,” Keller said.
After a quiet second, all it took was Ke’Bryan Hayes not being able to haul in a Paul Goldschmidt one-hopper, an Arenado bloop and DeJong’s fly ball to saddle Keller was an unflattering debut line.
He got another inning after that. It was his best, attacking the top of the Cardinals’ lineup with high-90s heat and ending with a 1-2-3 frame, fanning Dylan Carlson and Goldschmidt to end the night.
The 70th and final pitch was measured at 97.4 mph:
“The one thing that stands out to me as a positive sign is as we move forward from last year, that fourth inning for Mitch would not have been as good,” Shelton said. “He was able to harness himself. This is a good lineup. Let’s not kid ourselves. These guys can hit. If you don’t execute pitches, they’re going to do damage. The fact that he came out in the fourth and did a good job was really a positive sign.”
“I know I have that in me,” Keller said about ending the night on those punchouts.
That’s the point of this year for Keller, becoming the pitcher he knows he can be. The first four innings aren’t going to define the year. It’s about how he moves on from it.
“Going forward, I’m trying not to look at the negatives of this outing,” Keller said. “A lot of positives. A lot of things that I couldn’t control that happened. But a lot of things in my control I thought I did really well today, too.”
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Pirates had a chance to rack up some runs early, making Miles Mikolas throw 41 pitches in the first and picking up a run on a Yoshi Tsutsugo sacrifice fly. Tucker was pesky with the bases loaded and two outs, working him for nine pitches before lifting a flyout to end the inning.
Mikolas would be chased in the fourth, but the Pirates would only get one more run on a third inning Tsutsugo single, plating Hayes.
"We let him off the hook," Shelton said about the first.
Tsutsugo and Hayes both had a pair of hits in the game.
• Before the game, the Pirates recalled Roansy Contreras from Class AAA Indianapolis. He pitched 1 2/3 innings, allowing a pair of runs out of the bullpen Saturday, which would have been his scheduled start with the Indians. In it, he flashed the pure stuff that has made him a top 100 prospect, but also the control rawness that justified him not starting the season in the Pirates' opening day rotation.
With the expanded rosters, the Pirates will be using Contreras in the bullpen to start, keeping a five-man rotation early in the season.
“When Roansy pitches, we’ll make sure [those are] the right spots for him and for us,” Shelton said. “I don’t know if we’ll specifically set a schedule for him to pitch on certain days, but we will be very mindful of his development and getting him lengthened out.”
As for Contreras, he said he was preparing for a call up like this, even so early in the season. After getting called up for a day last season, the magic of getting that news was still there.
"No matter how many times you get that call up, or no matter how many times you get called to the big leagues, it’s always going to be an emotional event," Contreras said through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez. "When I got that call, I became emotional. I’m really excited to be here."
• Diego Castillo has a major-league batting average. Pinch-hitting in the seventh, the rookie put a ball in the right-center gap for a double, picking up his first hit in front of his dad and grandfather, who made the trip from his home in Venezuela:
Diego Castillo's family was here to see his first Major League hit.
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 9, 2022
We're not crying, you're crying. 🥺 pic.twitter.com/Mo6BuwX2HY
"When I watched the ball flying over second base," Castillo said, "I was like, 'there it is. Finally. This is a dream come true.' Running the bases, I wasn't feeling my body, to be honest. It was amazing. Nothing to describe."
Castillo described it as the "best moment of my life," and the ball is going to his mom.
"Nobody else deserves this more than her."
THE ESSENTIALS
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Duane Underwood Jr. was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain. The move is retroactive to April 8.
• 10-day injured list: OF Anthony Alford (right hand), LHP Sam Howard (back), RHP Max Kranick (forearm), RHP Luis Oviedo (right ankle)
• 60-day injured list: OF Greg Allen (hamstring), RHP Blake Cederlind (UCL), RHP Nick Mears (elbow surgery)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Daniel Vogelbach, DH
2. Brian Reynolds, CF
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
4. Yoshi Tsutsugo, 1B
5. Josh VanMeter, 2B
6. Ben Gamel, LF
7. Cole Tucker, RF
8. Roberto Pérez, C
9. Kevin Newman, SS
And for Oli Marmol's Cardinals:
1. Dylan Carlson, RF
2. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
3. Tyler O'Neill, LF
4. Nolan Arenado, 3B
5. Corey Dickerson, DH
6. Paul DeJong, SS
7. Yadier Molina, C
8. Harrison Bader, CF
9. Tommy Edman, 2B
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates and Cardinals will meet again Sunday for game three of the four-game set. Bryse Wilson will take the bump against Steven Matz, with first pitch coming at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.
THE CONTENT
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