Pittsburgh Review

SAN DIEGO -- The Pittsburgh Pirates concluded their West Coast road trip with a 10th consecutive loss, marked by Mitch Keller surrendering a season-high number of runs. On Wednesday at Petco Park, Keller allowed eight runs in the first three innings as the Pirates fell to the San Diego Padres, 8-2.

In his previous outing against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, Keller's fastball was effective but his breaking pitches were hit hard. This time, his velocity was down, with his sinker averaging 91.4 mph—more than 2 mph below his season average of 93.7 mph. All five of his pitches were at least 1 mph slower than usual.

The Padres capitalized on this decreased velocity. Jake Cronenworth hit a three-run home run that just cleared Petco's right-field wall in the first inning. In the third inning, Jackson Merrill drove in two runs with a triple and then scored on David Peralta's home run off an elevated four-seam fastball. This early scoring put the game out of reach for the Pirates.

Keller’s recent performances have raised his season ERA from 3.20 to 3.95 after allowing seven runs against the Dodgers last Friday.

“Man, it just sucks,” Keller said. “It feels like whatever I'm throwing up there right now is getting hit. Try to go back, look it over, see what's working, what's not working and why it's happening, and just be better about it."

Keller was pulled after five innings during which he allowed eight hits and two walks; four hits and both walks came off his fastball.

"I think he's had two rough starts, and we'll kind of build off that,” manager Derek Shelton said. “The last start was probably the best fastball he's had since April. The offspeed stuff wasn't there. It's just one of those things where we got to get him back on track."

For Keller and his teammates, this losing streak is particularly frustrating given that they were recently in playoff contention.

“I think we have a really good team, and we know what we can do,” Keller said. “It's just not clicking for us right now... Just disappointed in myself... I didn't do my job today.”

However, individual performance is not solely responsible for a 10-game losing streak—the longest in Major League Baseball this season besides that of the Chicago White Sox. The Pirates struck out 14 times on Wednesday; eight strikeouts came against Martín Pérez who they traded for at the deadline. Michael A. Taylor’s dive turned Luis Arraez’s bloop into an RBI double in the second inning while leaving ten men stranded on base.

Shelton noted this was the first game during their losing streak where he felt players were trying too hard individually rather than playing as a team.

“One person doesn't get you out of a stretch like this,” Shelton said... "It has to be a collective group... When you scuffle a little bit... instead of 'Let's collectively do it.'"

Despite their current record (56-64), many players still aim for playoffs this year although it seems unlikely now.

"I think we've got to continue playing better baseball every day," Shelton said.

"It's going to be an uphill battle," Keller added... "Feel like we've got good baseball left... We're just in a rut right now."

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