Even when Aroldis Chapman and David Bednar were going through tough times out of the back end of the Pirates' bullpen, Mitch Keller's confidence in his teammates never wavered.
"Whenever I leave the game with the lead, I feel like it’s a guaranteed win with the guys that we have, the stuff that they have and the stuff we know they’re capable of doing," said Keller, whose six scoreless innings were followed by three more from Chapman, Colin Holderman and Bednar in the Pirates' 3-0 win over the Twins at PNC Park Friday night.
Chapman, who has struggled with command throughout the year, picked up a pair of strikeouts in a clean seventh inning to keep Keller's scoreless outing intact. He averaged around 101 mph with his sinker and struck out Willi Castro and Carlos Correa, the latter on a sinker up in the zone at 103:
Is 102.9 MPH fast?
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) June 8, 2024
Aroldis Chapman finishes off Carlos Correa with a K
2386 RPM, 10 inVB, 13 inHB pic.twitter.com/da476ZSjdJ
Holderman, who has been effective all year with a 0.87 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP through 22 appearances, followed Chapman by inducing weak contact against the Twins' 3-5 hitters in Royce Lewis, Max Kepler and Ryan Jeffers. After he retired the three in order, Holderman passed the baton off to Bednar, who struck out former Plum standout Alex Kirilloff in a battle of former WPIAL stars and got two more outs after a one-out single to secure his 13th save of the season.
"I think that's been one of the big things is we've always had a lot of trust in the bullpen and obviously early on, it was a little bit rocky," Bednar said. "But now we're kind of hitting our stride, kind of at the right time. Holderman has been absolutely dealing, Chapman's been absolutely dealing it. So it's been really cool to watch those guys do their thing. I mean, shoot, Holderman's been absolutely nasty and Chapman, just casual 104, it's a lot of fun and it's a great group down there. I think we're only getting stronger."
