Keller's first career shutout comes in stopper form for slumping Pirates

"The mentality is good. Tomorrow we'll play good and we'll win," Carlos Santana had said Sunday after the Pirates lost their seventh in a row, exuding a lot of confidence that the season wasn't spiraling like so many had seemingly thought. 

Even so, they needed someone, anyone to step up and stop the bleeding, and Mitch Keller, their young ace, did just that Monday night at PNC Park, exuding a Santana-level confidence in pitching his first big-league shutout to bury the Rockies, 2-0, in allowing four hits and a walk while striking out eight. 

"No. It’s early," Keller said after I asked if he'd felt added pressure heading into this one. "We can’t be thinking pressure like that. I mean, I don’t even know what the date is. It’s May-something. We still have a long season to go. I’m just trying to go out there, do my thing and try to put us in the best position to win."

And so he did, lasting 103 pitches when he'd never previously lasted longer than a big-league seventh inning.

"It’s kind of hard to put it into words. I don’t know. I’m still speechless about it," he said. "It was really cool. I kind of blacked out out there after the fifth or sixth. Yeah, it’s just really special to do it with a bunch of these guys in here. We had been struggling a little bit. Huge win here."

"That was a big-boy start right there," Derek Shelton said. "Wow."

It sure was. Keller dominated the Colorado lineup all night long. He faced the minimum in six different innings. The Rockies got someone into scoring position only twice, and Keller had multiple runners on base only one time when he walked Jurickson Profar with two outs in the sixth, then immediately gave up a single to Kris Bryant. Keller responded by getting Ryan McMahon to ground out for the third out, then retired the next nine batters.

In an age in which starting pitchers seldom go deep, Keller's dominance never gave Shelton any doubt that he was going to let him finish what he started.

"He was going out for the ninth," Shelton said. "I was hoping we would get a couple more runs. David [Bednar] was ready, but his stuff was electric the entire game. I think the fact that he had everything working and the way he ended the eighth, yeah, there was no thought. Not even a conversation."

Keller had everything working in this game. He was able to pound the strike zone with both his four-seam fastball and sinker ...

... then get Rockies' hitters to expand the zone with his cutter and nasty sweeper, with one of the latter earning Pitching Ninja status on Twitter:

It cannot be overstated just how much this start meant for the Pirates, both in the short-term and over the club's recent history. This was only the fourth complete game shutout thrown by a Pirates pitcher at PNC Park since it opened in 2001, and it's the first since Jameson Taillon threw a one-hitter against the Reds on April 8, 2018. For reference on how Keller's four-hitter compares, Taillon faced only three over the minimum in his shutout while Keller faced only four over the minimum.

But, in the here and now, Keller was the one to stop the bleeding. The Pirates were riding high with a 20-9 record in April. Then, since the calendar turned over to May, they've been unable to find the win column. The only reason they've remained atop the National League Central is because the rest of the division has played almost as poorly during the same stretch. For Keller to be the one to put his foot down and put the team on his back ... that's huge for the 27-year-old.

Keller got the short end of the stick in his last start. The defense played poorly behind him in Tampa, and Keller took his first loss of the season with four of the five runs allowed being unearned. On Monday night, the offense couldn't get anything going. The offense had been beyond stagnant during the seven-game losing streak, as the Pirates were outscored, 44-9, during that stretch.

The sputtering offense continued for the first six innings, giving Keller zero run support. The offense continued to struggle with timely hitting, going 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position, and that lone hit was an infield single by Ke'Bryan Hayes after Austin Hedges led off the sixth inning with a hard-hit double to left-center field. Hedges couldn't advance because the grounder was hit to shortstop, then Bryan Reynolds grounded into a inning-killing double play and Carlos Santana failed to come through with a ground out.

Even in the areas the Pirates have been strong, they struggled. No team in baseball has stolen more bases than Pittsburgh, but they were unsuccessful in all three of their stolen base attempts on Monday night. The most puzzling came in the fifth inning when the Pirates had Jack Suwinski on first and Rodolfo Castro on second with one out, and Castro was thrown out at third as they attempted to pull off a double steal:

Turns out, two of the three stolen base attempts were failed hit-and-run attempts.

"We were running. We had twice where we ran (on a 3-2 count). We just didn’t get contact," Shelton said. "We were planning on contact. We just didn’t get it. That’s not his fault. That’s on me. I’m making the assumption we’re gonna get contact, and we’re gonna try and stay out of the double play. It happened in the first, then it happened in that inning, too. On 3-2, that’s not a straight steal. We just didn’t get contact."

Pitchers can get frustrated with a lack of run support, especially when they are dominating the opposing lineup, putting up zero after zero after zero. We've seen Keller, even as recent as last season, allow adversity to get to him and have things snowball and get out of control. And, while the stuff was electric Monday night, maintaining his composure to keep his foot on the gas and execute pitch after pitch after pitch is just as encouraging as a nasty sweeper or a painted heater.

"He stayed focused the whole game," Shelton said. "The execution was good. Early on in the game we hit some balls hard. We had opportunities to score. I think for the first four innings it’s probably the best we’ve swung the bats in the past seven days. We hit some balls right on the screws. We unfortunately hit them into the ground. But the fact that he stayed focused was really impressive."

Keller's focus paid off as the Pirates' offense finally broke through when Connor Joe shot a single out into right field in the seventh inning, then Castro launched a two-run home run into the Rockies' bullpen.

"Our dugout just erupted when it went over the fence," Keller said of Castro's homer. "Just to have him come through in the clutch like that was huge. It just revived our dugout a little bit. I had to sit down and catch my breath a little bit because I was super amped for him."

As Keller stated, it's early in the season. But now, he sports a 4-1 record with a 2.72 ERA and 1.09 WHIP through eight starts. And, his 56 strikeouts on the season ranks third in the National League and seventh in all of baseball. More important, Keller's putting the stuff together along with his maturity on and off the mound.

People around baseball may or may not believe it, but Keller is starting to throw his name into the 'Ace' category. Monday night is another feather in that cap. When a team needs someone to step up and be the one to take over when they need it most, the ace of a pitching staff is the most ideal candidate. That's exactly what Keller did.

"He’s in that category of 'ace,' " Hedges said. "He's the one you want on the mound in the playoffs when you’ve gotta face a big dog. He's our big dog. I don't care who we're facing, I’ll take Mitch Keller versus anybody in the league right now."

MORE FROM THE GAME

• In a game that featured a shutout and the only offense coming from one swing of the bat, there isn't much else to hit on. However, it's noteworthy that Hayes recorded his third consecutive multi-hit game with two singles on Monday night. That streak ties the longest of his career -- the third time he's done it.

"Not really anything (clicking) in particular," Hayes said. "Just kind of finding some holes a little bit. Still working to get where I wanna be but it’s been nice to find some holes with some balls and get some line drives up the middle. Really, just getting my body into a better position to put better swings on the ball."

• Chris Owings made his Pirates debut after being called up Monday afternoon in place of Mark Mathias, who was optioned to Class AAA Indianapolis. He singled in his first at-bat and held down the fort at shortstop.

"He can play short. I think we saw that," Shelton said. "He had a nice debut: base hit, fielded the ball, nice double-play turn. We know he can play there. He’s gonna get some reps there. He did a nice job."

• I honestly don't know what is more impressive: Keller's shutout or the time of the game. It was a pitcher's duel, so it was bound to move quickly.

However, a game that flew by in 1 hour and 55 minutes ... that's just unheard of. I asked Shelton if he can remember a game that finished in less than two hours.

"No," he said. "It was probably in Little League."

However, fans and players alike all loved the pace of the game.

"Pitchers’ duels, they usually go pretty quick. But, even with the pitch clock, that’s unbelievably fast," Keller said. "Guys were joking in here, like, 'That was the quickest game ever. Thanks.' I was like, 'All right, no problem, man. That’s what I was going for.'"

All hail the pitch clock.

JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY

Mitch Keller joins his teammates for the postgame sword celebration Monday night at PNC Park.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 15-day injured list: RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow), Rob Zastryzny (elbow)

• 60-day injured list: 1B Ji-Man Choi (Achilles), RHP Wil Crowe (shoulder), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Andrew McCutchen, DH
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Connor Joe, RF
6. Rodolfo Castro, 2B
7. Jack Suwinski, CF
8. Chris Owings, SS
9. Austin Hedges, C

And for Bud Black's Rockies:

1. Charlie Blackmon, RF
2. Jurickson Profar, LF
3. Kris Bryant, DH
4. Ryan McMahon, 3B
5. Elias Diaz, C
6. Mike Moustakas, 1B
7. Ezekiel Tovar, SS
8. Harold Castro, 2B
9. Brenton Doyle, CF

THE SCHEDULE

The Pirates continue this three-game series Tuesday against the Rockies. Luis Ortiz is set to make his first start of the season, squaring off against Colorado right-hander Connor Seabold (0-0, 5.30). First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. I'll have you covered once again.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE CONTENT

Visit our team page for everything.