Pirates, Mitch Keller start slow, never recover in loss to Toronto

Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller hit Blue Jays designated hitter George Springer with his second pitch of Tuesday’s game at PNC Park and everything went downhill from there.

Keller worked 3⅓ innings, allowing seven hits, five earned runs and three walks. The offense tallied eight hits but failed to capitalize in crucial moments in a 7-3 loss, their 74th of the season and 30th at home.

“I thought on the whole, he competed, found a way,” said manager Don Kelly of Keller’s start. “Max (Scherzer) pitched well. We had our opportunities there to score some runs. We were able to push a few across, just not enough.”

The Blue Jays capitalized on Keller’s early mistakes as he walked the second and third batters he faced. Catcher Alejandro Kirk followed with a single over Bryan Reynolds’ head in right field to drive home Springer before left fielder Nathan Lukes drove in Addison Barger and Bo Bichette to take an early 3-0 lead.

Toronto extended its lead to five in the second inning when Springer jumped on a 1-2 sweeper and hit it over the center-field wall for a two-run home run, his 20th of the season.

“Just one of those days,” Keller said. “Didn’t have it.”

Keller allowed back-to-back singles in the fourth before being replaced by Yohan Ramirez after striking out Barger with his 85th pitch. He threw 59% of his pitches for strikes, while only drawing eight whiffs on 36 swings for a 22% whiff rate.

The right-hander threw his changeup four times and leaned heavily on his slider (22 pitches) and four-seam fastball (21) but couldn’t find the zone consistently enough to keep the Blue Jays off balance.

“Command, free bases early, had the hit batsmen and then fell behind,” said Kelly of Keller’s struggles. “He had some walks and just falling behind in the count. It’s tough, especially against this lineup that’s really good. When you get behind in the count, they can do some damage.”

Keller got to an 0-2 count on both Kirk and Lukes in the first inning before they capitalized on pitches in the middle of the zone.

With a career ERA of 5.99 in August, Keller has seen his second-half struggles continue this season. In four starts this month, his season ERA has climbed from 3.89 to 4.34 as he’s allowed five or more earned runs and seven or more hits in three of those starts. His August ERA this season sits at 7.98.

“I have to go back and just watch some video,” Keller said. “Go over, got some bad tendencies, locations, I don’t know. Yeah, just to go through it all. Try to turn it around as best as I can. It’s frustrating for sure.”

The Pirates couldn’t cut into Toronto’s lead on two occasions as Scherzer staved off major damage. He threw six innings, allowing four hits and three walks while giving up one earned run.

The Pirates loaded the bases in the second inning and pushed across a run on an RBI groundout by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. However, they failed to do any further damage as Ronny Simon popped out to end the threat.

“I think that we still need to continue to bear down and grind out at-bats in those situations and come up with the big hit,” Kelly said of his team failing to convert with runners on base. “But, Max has been doing this for a long time and found a way to minimize damage there in that inning. We scored one, just couldn’t get any more across. He’s a tough competitor out there.”

Scherzer stranded runners on first and second in the sixth with a little help from his defense as center fielder Myles Straw robbed Andrew McCutchen of a base hit with a diving catch. Scherzer then struck out Jack Suwinski with a slider at the bottom of the zone to end his night.

Simon and Suwinski drove in runs in the seventh and eighth innings. However, the Pirates finished 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base.

Ramírez pitched three innings of hitless relief while striking out three.

Colin Holderman’s struggles continued as he gave up a two-run home run to Kirk in the seventh inning.

Since being recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis on Aug. 15, Holderman has made two appearances and has given up three earned runs over 2⅓ innings.