Pittsburgh Review

LOS ANGELES -- Since the start of May, few have been as consistent as Mitch Keller. Entering play Friday, the only starting pitcher who could best his 2.34 ERA was his teammate, Paul Skenes. He tied a Modern Era franchise record for most starts with at least five innings pitched. While Skenes and Jared Jones have grabbed most of the headlines for the team, he has been the staff’s leader.

On Friday, however, Keller had an off night. He surrendered a season-high seven runs over just four innings, creating too deep a hole at Dodger Stadium for the Pirates to crawl out of as they took a 9-5 loss against the Dodgers.

The loss extends the Pirates’ losing streak to five games, dropping them to three games under .500 (56-59) and further back in the National League Wild Card picture. Unless they can right the ship quickly, this stretch of seven losses in eight games -- almost exclusively to National League West clubs -- seems to have put their season in jeopardy.

"It sucks,” said Keller. “We're trying to win every single game. Obviously, we know what's at stake. It sucks to have a bad stretch here."

Keller and Derek Shelton had the same assessment of his evening: He had his fastball but not his secondary offerings. The Dodgers capitalized on those breaking pitches, starting with Freddie Freeman pulling a 2-0 cutter for a solo shot in the first inning. In the third inning, Shohei Ohtani launched a slider a Statcast-projected 448 feet to dead center field. Will Smith and Miguel Rojas also picked up RBIs off a cutter and slider respectively in that five-run third inning.

One reason why Keller is normally so effective is his wide range of pitches. He’s not shy about leaning on one or two offerings or trying something new. Two years ago at Dodger Stadium, he unveiled his sinker and dominated with it in what many within the organization consider his breakout performance. This doesn’t mean he needs all seven pitches every game; usually he finds a mix of particular breaking balls that complement his fastballs effectively. That did not happen Friday night; instead, he relied heavily on his fastball during his four-inning, 95-pitch outing where he allowed seven runs and seven hits.

“It just didn't have the same bite that we'd seen,” Shelton said about Keller’s breaking pitches. “The fastball actually played well; just the breaking stuff wasn't sharp. With this lineup if you miss on the plate with breaking stuff they're going to hurt you and that's what happened."

Domingo Germán covered four innings after being called up from Triple-A Indianapolis earlier Friday; he allowed two runs on an Enrique Hernández homer that ticked off Bryan Reynolds’ glove. The offense managed home run swings from Oneil Cruz and Joey Bart but couldn’t close in after falling behind early.

This five-game losing streak is now their second-longest of the year; they previously experienced a six-game skid from April 15-21st They had avoided long stretches like this until now despite starting their second-half gauntlet strong but haven’t maintained momentum putting themselves into difficult circumstances

"We're gonna flush this game come back tomorrow act like it never happened,” Keller said “We're gonna start zero-zero tomorrow try starting new winning streak No one hanging heads here We know what's at stake what need do Flush it come back win tomorrow"