Mitch Keller provides quality start, Oneil Cruz drives in winning run as Pirates top Brewers

Mitch Keller dealt with his share of ups and downs early in his major-league career with the Pittsburgh Pirates that mentally steeled the right-hander and taught him how handle adversity with aplomb.

Keller had lost six consecutive decisions, a run of futility not seen since Quinn Priester lost seven straight for them over the 2023-24 seasons. As fate would have it, Keller had a chance to snap that streak while facing Priester, now with the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Pirates once again provided little run support for Keller, but Oneil Cruz crushed an RBI triple in the seventh inning as the Pirates beat the Brewers, 2-1, on Saturday afternoon before 24,651 at PNC Park.

“Mitch pitched really well, deserved the win himself,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said, “but really pumped that we got the team win.”

Keller (1-6) got a no-decision despite recording seven strikeouts and allowing one run on seven hits without a walk over six innings. It was his fourth consecutive quality start and eighth in 11 outings this season, which is tied with Paul Skenes for the team lead.

“Mitch has done a good job … just in controlling what he can,” Kelly said. “Going out there, dominating the zone, getting ahead of guys, throwing strikes and keeping the other team off the board, which is what we need him to do. Didn’t score six today but got enough to get the win, and we’re pumped about that.”

In the process, Keller became the all-time strikeouts leader at PNC Park by a pitcher in a Pirates uniform. Only Paul Maholm (383) and Francisco Liriano (371) — former Pirates who also played for other teams — have more strikeouts than Keller’s 364 at PNC Park.

“Means I’ve probably made a lot of starts here, which is cool,” said Keller, who made his 74th career start at home. “I’ve got to be doing something right. All the catchers I’ve been with probably set me up for a lot of those. It’s cool.”

A lack of run support has cost Keller, however, as the Pirates averaged 2.17 runs in his first 10 starts, tied for the fewest among all qualified MLB pitchers this season. They have either gone scoreless or scored one run in eight of Keller’s starts.

This one was no different, even as it came against a friend and former teammate in Priester, who threw 59 of his 84 pitches for strikes with seven punchouts and one walk while giving up six hits over six innings.

“I’m just trying to throw up a zero, no matter what,” Keller said. “It’s definitely fun going pitcher’s duel. Hat’s off to him. He pitched really well.”

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Bryan Reynolds singled and scored on a double to the right-center gap by Spencer Horwitz, who went 2 for 4 and is batting .259 through his first eight games. But the Pirates didn’t score another run with Keller on the bump.

Priester, a 2019 first-round pick by the Pirates who was traded to the Boston Red Sox for infielder Nick Yorke at the trade deadline last July, was motivated to pitch at PNC Park for the first time since last July 19.

“As a competitor, there’s always that fire where it’s like, I guess I don’t have any problem saying it — you kind of want to prove them wrong, like, ‘You shouldn’t have let me go’ type of thought,” said Priester, who was acquired by the Brewers on April 7. “I think that goes for anybody who gets traded, not just me.

“This morning, focusing on just some breath work, realizing that, ‘Hey, this is another game.’ I know the revenge game or whatever that people texted me — no, it’s another game, it’s a divisional game that we’re going to go out and do my job, give ourselves a chance to be on top after nine innings. Certainly, I feel like it’s human nature to feel some of those emotions but trying to let it pass through and just go out there and do my job.”

Milwaukee answered in the second, when Christian Yelich led off with a dribbler to the mound, stole second base and scored on a single to center by Caleb Durbin. Henry Davis threw out Durbin while he was attempting to steal second base, one of two times the Pirates catcher caught a runner stealing.

“This team loves to run, and we know that,” Keller said, “so going into it, yeah, just gives you a little bit of comfort knowing that Henry’s got a hose back there.”

The Brewers threatened again in the fifth, when Durbin doubled down the left-field line and advanced on Joey Ortiz’s dribbler down the third-base line. Ortiz stole second to put both runners in scoring position, but Keller got Brice Turang to chase a 2-2 sweeper to escape.

Lefty Caleb Ferguson replaced Keller for the seventh inning, only to give up singles to Sal Frelick and Durbin and hit Joey Ortiz with a pitch to load the bases. Ferguson got Turang to hit a grounder to second baseman Adam Frazier, who threw home to force out Frelick for the second out. Righty Chase Shugart relieved Ferguson and got Jackson Chourio to fly out to right to strand the runners.

“These guys in the ’pen, they’re coming in and they’re not scared,” Kelly said. “They’re doing what they can, firing strikes.”

The Pirates didn’t miss their chance in the bottom of the seventh against lefty reliever Tyler Alexander. Isiah Kiner-Falefa lined a single to left and advanced to second on a balk. A 10-year-old Pirates fan, John Block, told Cruz to get a hit — and asked for his bat if he did. Cruz responded by smacking a 1-0 sweeper at his knees for a triple to center at a 114.3 mph exit velocity to give the Pirates the lead.

“I took it like a challenge from the kid, and I couldn’t let him down,” Cruz said through an interpreter, Pirates coach Stephen Morales. “That’s why after I hit that ball and got to third base, I was looking towards the dugout, seeing if I could find him. I couldn’t find him. I took it more as a challenge from the kid than anything else.

“It makes me proud that the little kid like that, or his dad, is looking up to me. I did the same thing as a kid. I was always looking for my favorite players that I wanted to be like. It makes me proud and makes me happy that someone wants to be like me.”

After Dennis Santana tossed a scoreless eighth, David Bednar hit leadoff batter Durbin on the left wrist with a 96 mph fastball to put the tying run on base in the ninth. Ortiz hit a one-out single to left to put runners on first and second, but Bednar got Turang to ground into a game-ending 6-3 double play to end the game for their second consecutive win.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy was complimentary of how the Pirates have played under Don Kelly, who was promoted from bench coach to replace Derek Shelton as manager May 8.

“The Pirates have been playing good baseball, playing good defense, playing better in so many aspects, putting the ball in play, pitching great. Give credit to the Pirates,” Murphy said. “They’re playing loose, they’re playing free. Donnie’s got them in a good spot. I think with their pitching staff, they’re capable. You’ve got to hit — you’ve got to come in, and their offense isn’t killing, putting up numbers — but they’re battling to the last minute.”