Mitch Keller delivers strong start as Pirates take advantage of error to shut out Cardinals

Mitch Keller’s season has been a head scratcher, especially for the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander, so trying to make sense out of his mastery of the St. Louis Cardinals is something of a mystery.

Where Keller’s struggles with his fastball command got him demoted to the minors midseason, he was at a loss to explain how he finds his focus – and the strike zone – when playing the NL Central Division rivals.

“I honestly don’t know,” said Keller, who has allowed one run in 16 innings over three starts against St. Louis. “It’s just the way baseball goes sometimes. I honestly don’t have an answer for you.”

Keller (4-10) pitched five scoreless innings in a 4-0 win over the Cardinals on Friday night at Busch Stadium, leading the Pirates (43-79) to their fifth shutout of the season and snapping a five-game losing streak.

It was his first win and best outing since May 29, when Keller gave up two hits and two walks with six strikeouts in five scoreless innings in a 4-0 win over Colorado in the nightcap of a doubleheader at PNC Park.

“It feels amazing, honestly, after everything I’ve been through this year working back,” said Keller (4-10). “I felt really good in my last two starts — actually, my last three I felt really good. The results weren’t there, and I think I just came full circle. Just attacked the zone and got hitters out.”

Pirates manager Derek Shelton was impressed with the command and execution of Keller’s fastball and slider as he gave up six hits and one walk with six strikeouts on 89 pitches, calling it a “very effective outing.”

“I thought he did a really good job,” Shelton said. “He moved it around. It was not in the middle of the plate consistently. He moved it in, he moved it out, he moved it up. … That’s a good lineup, and he was able to get through them and kind of mix and match.”

It was a mismatched performance that propelled the Pirates, as Cardinals center fielder Harrison Bader made a pair of spectacular catches to prevent a pair of Pirates runs but followed with a costly two-base error.

With runners on first and second with one out in the first inning, Bader prevented an extra-base hit by Colin Moran in right-center. Bader sprinted to his left and made a sliding catch on the palm of his glove hand. Bader later made a diving catch coming in on a line drive to shallow center to rob Bryan Reynolds of a hit in the third.

But Moran singled to right to lead off the fourth and Bader whiffed on scooping a bloop single by Jacob Stallings, an error that allowed Moran to score for a 1-0 lead and Stallings to reach third base. Stallings scored on Gregory Polanco’s sacrifice fly to center to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.

“I think that broke the Statcast metrics because we had the two slowest human beings on the planet running around the bases,” Shelton joked. “So, yeah, Statcast, they’re probably checking their numbers right now.”

Keller (4-10), meantime, got off to a good start with a 1-2-3 first. He got into a jam in the second inning but Stallings blocked a pair of sliders in the dirt to prevent a run from scoring as Bader drew a walk to load the bases. Keller escaped by getting pitcher Miles Mikolas to pop out to Moran.

“You have to get through those innings, and I think those are the innings in the past where the execution of the pitches haven’t been as consistent,” Shelton said. “He was able to get them. He got the big punchout there. That’s extremely important. We talk about moving forward, those are the victories that we have to isolate and talk about.”

Using an elevated fastball, Keller struck out six. He fanned the final batter in the first, third and fourth innings. Of the six hits he allowed, one was a slow roller through the defensive shift by Lars Nootbaar that saw Cardinals 39-year-old catcher Yadier Molina chug from first to third; the other was a two-out bunt by Nootbaar down the third base line.

Keller gave up back-to-back singles to pinch hitter Austin Dean and Tommy Edman in the fifth but got sluggers Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado to line out to third and fly out to left, respectively, to end the inning.

“They’re a really good lineup. They have two All-Stars on their team. Goldschmidt and Arenado hitting back-to-back, they have a really good lineup,” Keller said of the Cardinals. “Yeah, it’s huge. To get those guys out back-to-back, it’s obviously a huge confidence booster and huge for the team. Those guys do any sort of damage there, the game’s totally different.”

After facing a stretch of seven consecutive left-handed starters, the Pirates got a break when the Cardinals went with the right-handed Mikolas (0-1). It was the first major league start since May 23 for Mikolas, who has been dealing with forearm issues the past two seasons. He allowed two runs (both unearned) on two hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

One of the beneficiaries was Polanco, who was 1 for 12 (.083) in the past five games. The lefty-hitting Polanco had two sacrifice flies, the first scoring Stallings and the second driving in Reynolds after his leadoff double in the sixth for a 3-0 lead.

Yoshi Tsutsugo made it 4-0 in the ninth with a pinch-hit home run, drilling a 1-1 changeup by Daniel Ponce de Leon 397 feet to right center for his first homer since signing with the Pirates on Monday.

The Cardinals (62-59) didn’t have an answer for Keller or relievers Duane Underwood Jr., David Bednar and Chris Stratton, who combined to toss four scoreless innings. The Cardinals had 10 hits but none for extra bases as they stranded 12, going 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.

“It’s awesome,” Keller said. “Huge situation for those guys coming in. I know Duane had some traffic there, and Bednar came in and shut it down, which is awesome. Guys picking up guys. Duane picked me up for two innings. Then Bednar picked him up, which is just how it goes. When everyone is clicking like that, wins like this come.”