Mitch Keller had his full arsenal at his fingertips tonight at Citi Field, but the Mets' Brett Baty put one good swing on one good changeup in the seventh inning to beat the Pirates, 2-1:
Outside of that, Keller worked his way through a stacked New York lineup for seven innings, two runs, five hits and a walk, while striking out a season-high eight.
"I felt like I had really good command of the four-seam, two-seam, the sweeper, really," he said. "I thought it was a good pitch to Baty. He just made a really good swing on it and hit it over the fence. Everything felt pretty good."
He struck out Francisco Lindor, a .302 hitter, three times, Pete Alonso twice, and held Juan Soto to a single. He mixed his two-seam and four-seam fastballs, which he threw 51% of the time. His sweeper drew a 27% whiff rate.
"I kind of knew it in the bullpen. Everything was dancing," Henry Davis said. "I mean, when he’s at his best, he can do a lot of different things with the ball in different pitches, different locations, and I really felt like, from the start of the game, he was on top of everything. And it was fantastic to see.”
After Brandon Nimmo's RBI double in the first, Keller retired 18 of 21 hitters until Baty's home run.
"It’s Major League Baseball, it’s a really hard game and our hitters are trying their tails off every single night," Keller said of the lack of run support. "I mean, we have (Kodai) Senga out there, who has a one ERA. There’s a reason why he is who he is. But, yea, it will come for sure."
• The Pirates scored their lone run in the sixth when Davis drew a bases-loaded walk off Reed Garrett after going down 0-2. Garrett tested Davis with four straight pitches outside the zone, including a sinker above it.
"I just felt like I was seeing the ball, really, really well tonight," Davis said. "Obviously not playing super consistently. Didn’t see it great yesterday and I just kept talking to myself, ‘You’re seeing it well, trust it. You’re seeing it well, trust it.’ Being able to check off the pitches when he was throwing as hard as he is, I felt pretty confident in that moment and satisfied with my approach.”
• With Oneil Cruz (back) out of the lineup -- he's still day-to-day but getting better, according to Don Kelly -- and Andrew McCutchen given the beginning of the day to rest his legs after playing in left field yesterday for the first time since Oct. 3, 2022, Kelly mixed up his lineup. He batted Isiah Kiner-Falefa second, Adam Frazier hit leadoff, and Ji Hwan Bae, still hitless this season, started in center.
"Cutch just opened up some opportunity there at the top and felt like that was the best way to go," Kelly said. "Moved Bryan down to three to split up him and Fraz and put Izzy in the middle there, just trying to get a little spark at the top there with those guys."
• The Pirates had runners on second and third with nobody out in the fourth, and Senga then struck out Alexander Canario, Jared Triolo and Bae in order ... on 10 total pitches.
"That was tough," Kelly said. "You can't take anything away from Senga, either. Just the way that he's pitched, the season he's had so far. With the forkball and the command of the fastball and running it up there, he pitched real well that inning."
Senga's 1.22 ERA ranks second in all of Major League Baseball -- to the 1.11 of the Yankees' Max Fried -- among qualfied starters.
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THE ASYLUM
Greg Macafee
4:56 am - 05.14.2025NEW YORKExtra Bases: Keller razor-sharp
Mitch Keller had his full arsenal at his fingertips tonight at Citi Field, but the Mets' Brett Baty put one good swing on one good changeup in the seventh inning to beat the Pirates, 2-1:
Outside of that, Keller worked his way through a stacked New York lineup for seven innings, two runs, five hits and a walk, while striking out a season-high eight.
"I felt like I had really good command of the four-seam, two-seam, the sweeper, really," he said. "I thought it was a good pitch to Baty. He just made a really good swing on it and hit it over the fence. Everything felt pretty good."
He struck out Francisco Lindor, a .302 hitter, three times, Pete Alonso twice, and held Juan Soto to a single. He mixed his two-seam and four-seam fastballs, which he threw 51% of the time. His sweeper drew a 27% whiff rate.
"I kind of knew it in the bullpen. Everything was dancing," Henry Davis said. "I mean, when he’s at his best, he can do a lot of different things with the ball in different pitches, different locations, and I really felt like, from the start of the game, he was on top of everything. And it was fantastic to see.”
After Brandon Nimmo's RBI double in the first, Keller retired 18 of 21 hitters until Baty's home run.
"It’s Major League Baseball, it’s a really hard game and our hitters are trying their tails off every single night," Keller said of the lack of run support. "I mean, we have (Kodai) Senga out there, who has a one ERA. There’s a reason why he is who he is. But, yea, it will come for sure."
• The Pirates scored their lone run in the sixth when Davis drew a bases-loaded walk off Reed Garrett after going down 0-2. Garrett tested Davis with four straight pitches outside the zone, including a sinker above it.
"I just felt like I was seeing the ball, really, really well tonight," Davis said. "Obviously not playing super consistently. Didn’t see it great yesterday and I just kept talking to myself, ‘You’re seeing it well, trust it. You’re seeing it well, trust it.’ Being able to check off the pitches when he was throwing as hard as he is, I felt pretty confident in that moment and satisfied with my approach.”
• With Oneil Cruz (back) out of the lineup -- he's still day-to-day but getting better, according to Don Kelly -- and Andrew McCutchen given the beginning of the day to rest his legs after playing in left field yesterday for the first time since Oct. 3, 2022, Kelly mixed up his lineup. He batted Isiah Kiner-Falefa second, Adam Frazier hit leadoff, and Ji Hwan Bae, still hitless this season, started in center.
"Cutch just opened up some opportunity there at the top and felt like that was the best way to go," Kelly said. "Moved Bryan down to three to split up him and Fraz and put Izzy in the middle there, just trying to get a little spark at the top there with those guys."
• The Pirates had runners on second and third with nobody out in the fourth, and Senga then struck out Alexander Canario, Jared Triolo and Bae in order ... on 10 total pitches.
"That was tough," Kelly said. "You can't take anything away from Senga, either. Just the way that he's pitched, the season he's had so far. With the forkball and the command of the fastball and running it up there, he pitched real well that inning."
Senga's 1.22 ERA ranks second in all of Major League Baseball -- to the 1.11 of the Yankees' Max Fried -- among qualfied starters.
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