5/14/23- By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on Twitter
Mitch Keller Day is becoming a National Holiday in Pittsburgh as he once again plays stopper for the Pirates, turning in another fantastic start following his complete game shutout last Monday.
The Pirates managed to get on the board early as Carlos Santana hit a slow ground ball to 2nd with runners on the corners, just beating out a double play upon review and driving in a run. More offense in the third inning as Bryan Reynolds struck out but reached first on a wild pitch. Jack Suwinski worked a 1-out walk, Ke’Bryan Hayes shot a single to right to score Reynolds before Ji-hwan Bae would attack a 2-out fastball to score two more runs.
That would be all the offense Keller would need as he had all of his pitches working for him. Colin Holderman took over for him in the 8th and struck out two more batters while David Bednar, taking the 9th for a non-save situation, allowed two baserunners before shutting the door on a Pirates victory with two strikeouts of his own.
News & Notes
- Shelton changed up the lineup for the game, slotting Andrew McCutchen at leadoff, shifting Suwinski to cleanup with Hayes in the 5 spot (among other moves). Those 3 combined for 3 hits, 3 runs and 2 walks.
- Keller had a career-high in strikeouts with 13 while surrendering just 4 hits, 1 hit batter and zero walks over his 93 pitch outing. He generated just 12 swings-and-misses as he was painting all game.
- Keller, Holderman and Bednar combined for 17 strikeouts in the game.
- Day off tomorrow but we’ll be back at it Tuesday night in Detroit. Game start time is 6:40pm. Let’s Go Bucs!
Inside The Bucs Basement 
Great point on the lineup. Not sure why it didn’t work last night, but alas. 😦 I feel like it’s even deeper than that, though. I wanted to believe Haines was turning things around like Marin very much seems to have done. But now I can’t help questioning how anemic the offense is and whether the first month was not only unsustainable, but unthinkable for the power surge in particular. Now that it’s not homers, it’s a lot more outs, which tracks with the Haines model and results from 2022. I haven’t looked at data to confirm this, just a feeling.
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