MILWAUKEE — The Pirates lost a game Wednesday. Whatever. It's not exactly a secret they'll lose a bunch more this season.
Their offense also struggled against Brandon Woodruff and the Brewers bullpen. Again, not breaking news.
The biggest development to come out of Pittsburgh's 4-2 loss to Milwaukee at American Family Field had nothing to do with either of those things and also wasn't terribly hard to find.
It was Mitch Keller and an impressive start for the 26-year-old right-hander, maybe the best of his MLB career and a reminder that the ability he's flashed at times certainly hasn't left.
Keller gave the Pirates 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball, allowing only first baseman Rowdy Tellez’s home run to open the bottom of the second inning. Aside from Tellez, the Brewers hit just three more balls off Keller with an exit velocity of 95 mph or greater, while Keller picked up 11 whiffs and 13 called strikes.
The right-hander threw 68% fastballs, 17% sliders, 8% curveballs and 7% changeups, but the most important takeaway was probably how much Keller pounded the zone. Of the 75 pitches he threw, 58 were strikes.
It’s even hard to blame Keller for what Tellez did. He kept fouling off pitches and extending the at-bat. Then on the eight pitch, Tellez turned on a 96-mph heater on the inner half and drove it over the fence in right-center.
With nobody on base, so what? Challenge the hitter, and Keller did. He also executed the pitch. Tellez did a nice job. Tip your cap.
Manager Derek Shelton stuck with Keller and allowed him to start the sixth inning. But after Keller struck out shortstop Willy Adames, Shelton brought in left-hander Anthony Banda to face the left-handed hitting Christian Yelich, who grounded out to first.
Amazingly, though, Keller also wasn’t the best or most effective pitcher in this one.
As dominant as Keller was, firing 10 pitches 98 mph or harder, Milwaukee starter Brandon Woodruff was better, helping the Brewers to complete a three-game series sweep.
Woodruff breezed through six scoreless innings and began to conjure thoughts of a possible no-hitter, until former Brewer Daniel Vogelbach served a soft single in center with one out in the sixth.
No big deal. Woodruff came back and struck out Bryan Reynolds and got Ke’Bryan Hayes to fly out to left field to end the inning.
A day after Corbin Burnes went seven strong and struck out 10, looking very much like the Cy Young Award winner that he is, Woodruff allowed just Vogelbach’s single while walking two and striking out nine.
The Brewers held a 1-0 lead until the seventh inning, when Keston Hiura delivered another mammoth homer. Facing Miguel Yajure, who fell behind 3-1, Hiura got a fastball middle-away and rode it out to right field for a three-run blast to extend Milwaukee’s lead to 4-0.
It was the 11th homer for Hiura against the Pirates since 2019, tying him with Nick Castellanos, Mike Moustakas, Eugenio Suarez and Joey Votto for the most among MLB hitters. Only Paul Goldschmidt (37), Castellanos (32) and Paul DeJong (31) have more than Hiura’s 29 RBIs during that stretch.
Pittsburgh did rally against Brent Suter in the eighth. Michael Chavis and Kevin Newman opened with back-to-back singles, and Reynolds drew a two-out walk before Hayes stroked a single to left, scoring two.
Aside from the walk, Reynolds' at-bats are beginning to look worrisome; he's clearly in some kind of funk and is now 3 for his past 19 with 10 strikeouts.
