All-Star Keller searching for 2nd-half form

ANAHEIM — It was nearly two weeks in the past when Mitch Keller wore his Nationwide League All-Star uniform. He hasn’t seemed like an All-Star since.

Keller’s struggles continued in his second begin for the reason that break, permitting six earned runs on 9 hits — three of which the place homers — in a 7-5 loss towards the Angels on Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium.

The 27-year-old right-hander was ambushed in a four-run fifth that started with consecutive homers by No. 9 hitter Andrew Velazquez and leadoff man Luis Rengifo. Velazquez’s lengthy ball, which cleared the quick right-field fence for his first homer of the season, got here off a waist-high 84 mph sweeper on the within half of the plate.

“My mentality is to throw it arduous and let the spin maintain it,” Keller mentioned. “It’s not precisely the place I needed, nevertheless it was in a reasonably great place and he put a great swing on it.”

Rengifo then jumped on Keller’s subsequent pitch — a low changeup over the center of the plate.

“That was a changeup that I hoped to get forward within the rely with,” Keller mentioned.

The Angels tacked on two extra runs later that inning on Taylor Ward’s flare RBI single and Matt Thaiss’ sacrifice fly.

“It seemed like he received away from his fastball a bit,” supervisor Derek Shelton mentioned of Keller. “He had some conditions through which he may have used it.”

Following Pittsburgh’s mixed shutout on Saturday when 5 pitchers helped put an finish to the Angels’ 19-game dwelling run streak, the Halos wasted no time returning to kind. Shohei Ohtani lifted a 92 mph cutter from Keller to heart area for a solo homer within the first inning — the primary of 4 Angels dwelling runs.

The Halos’ second-inning rating was the results of a Mike Moustakas double adopted by a Thaiss single, every approaching pitches up within the zone. Keller was capable of restrict the harm then, however couldn’t achieve this later.

Since his All-Star look on July 11 in Seattle, Keller has yielded 14 earned runs and 19 hits over simply 11 innings towards Cleveland and Los Angeles. Keller has a 7.04 ERA and a 1.61 WHIP in July. His struggles have been extra obvious of late, although he’s usually been capable of counter them with high quality outings. However after the Guardians tagged him for a season-high eight runs on Tuesday, he couldn’t put collectively a bounceback begin towards the Angels.

“My stuff felt nearly as good because it has for the reason that starting of the yr,” Keller mentioned. “I’ve to hit the video room and see what’s happening. I’ve to see what’s totally different from the start of the yr to now.”

Pittsburgh’s bats had been comparatively dormant for six innings — presumably due to the bizarre supply from Angels starter Tyler Anderson, whose changeup compelled 15 swings and misses.

One exception was Bryan Reynolds. His first-inning solo homer to straightaway heart area was a private win as he appears to be like to enhance on a month through which he’s hit the ball properly, however has only a .505 OPS in July to point out for it. Batting from the fitting facet towards the left-handed Anderson, Reynolds’ tenth homer of the yr got here off the bat at 105 mph and traveled a projected 422 toes, based on Statcast.

Reynolds adopted that with a pointy third-inning single up the center. He may need had one other hit within the seventh if reliever Jacob Webb had not been in the way in which. As a substitute, it resulted in one other tough-luck putout.

Nonetheless, the Pirates put collectively a promising rally in that inning. The center-infield duo that teamed up on a vital bases-loaded double play within the fourth inning of Saturday’s victory mixed to supply a run Sunday afternoon. Shortstop Liover Peguero doubled down the right-field line and second baseman Nick Gonzalez beat the throw dwelling to attain from first base. Then, with Andrew McCutchen on the plate and Peguero at third, Webb mishandled a throw again from Thaiss behind the plate, permitting Peguero to run dwelling and not using a throw.

“It was a foul throw and the pitcher was not staying conscious,” Shelton mentioned. “It was very heads-up.”

Carlos Santana got here by means of with an reverse area two-run double to provide the Pirates an opportunity within the remaining innings, however the early gap proved to be an excessive amount of to beat.