With 8 shutout innings, Mitch Keller's masterpiece leads Pirates past Cubs

Mitch Keller was amid a masterpiece when he took a comebacker off his right shin with one out in the eighth inning. The Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star right-hander dropped to the grass, clutching his leg.

Pirates catcher Jason Delay came to the mound and showed little sympathy, given that Keller was tossing a shutout.

“I wasn’t about to let him get out of that game,” Delay said. “It worked out.”

After Keller completed the eighth, All-Star closer David Bednar survived a scare in the ninth as the Pirates held on to beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-1, Friday night before 24,379 at PNC Park.

Keller mixed his four-seam fastball, sinker, cutter and slider to initiate soft contact by the Cubs, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out six on 93 pitches in eight scoreless innings.

“I know this was another special night for him, but it feels like it’s the same every time he’s out there,” Delay said. “I’ve said this many times, but he’s got so many weapons. When he’s able to mix those weapons in the zone, every time he goes out there he has a chance to do something special. And tonight was a perfect example of that.”

It was the third consecutive quality start for Keller (11-8), who lost five decisions in a six game span between July 3 and Aug. 3. He drew 18 called strikes and nine whiffs and got seven groundouts and five flyouts.

“I think we’ve seen that over the last three starts,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Just the ability to execute, the ability to make pitches, and he did it the whole game. There wasn’t a ton of hard contact just because his execution was outstanding.

“He was in control, the pitch count was very manageable, he did a good job and executed all of his pitches. I think that was the thing: The fastball was good today, but the cutter was very good. So overall, yeah, I think that’s the best he’s been since mid-May.”

That’s when Keller delivered back-to-back outstanding outings, following a complete-game shutout in a 2-0 win over Colorado on May 8 by striking out a career-best 13 without a walk in seven innings in a 4-0 win at Baltimore on May 14.

Keller decided to attack the Cubs with his sinker, cutter and four-seamer, waiting for them to make an adjustment. The Cubs didn’t, so Keller stuck to his aggressive game plan.

“I feel like I’m throwing strikes and getting ahead,” Keller said, “using my offspeed to my advantage rather than throwing it for strikes, more for chase and not getting hurt with that and just attacking the hitters.”

The Pirates spotted Keller a two-run lead in the first inning against Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks (5-7).

Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a leadoff single to left field, advanced to third on Bryan Reynolds’ double to the right field corner and scored on Andrew McCutchen’s groundout to third. Reynolds, who reached third on the groundout, slid under catcher Yan Gomes to beat Nico Hoerner’s throw to home plate on a Josh Palacios chopper to second.

Alika Williams started the second with a double down the left field line, and Hayes followed with a single to center to put runners on first and third. But the Cubs pulled off a double play when Reynolds went down swinging at a full-count changeup and Hayes was caught stealing in a rundown when Gomes fired it to second base, where shortstop Dansby Swanson threw to first baseman Cody Bellinger for the tag.

The Pirates knocked Hendricks out in the sixth, when Connor Joe and Jack Suwinski hit successive singles then advanced into scoring position on Ji Hwan Bae’s groundout to first. Hendricks allowed six hits and one walk with four strikeouts on 94 pitches before being replaced by Jose Cuas, who got Williams to ground out to strand both runners.

The Pirates stranded two more in the seventh, when Jason Delay led off with a single and Hayes followed with a walk. McCutchen came to bat with runners on the corners and worked a seven-pitch at bat before grounding into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning.

Shelton wasn’t happy with the Pirates going 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position, leaving seven runners on base.

“That’s gonna be a focal point because there were a couple innings I was not extremely pleased,” Shelton said. “We cannot lose those opportunities to score. I think that’s the important thing. Especially (against) a team like the Cubs, chasing the division title and chasing the wild card. They’re a good club, and we cannot allow those opportunities to get away.”

With one out in the eighth, Nick Madrigal lined a comebacker off Keller’s right shin for a single. Keller went down to the grass, clutching his leg. Pirates assistant athletic trainer Tony Leo tended to Keller, and he threw a warmup pitch and decided he could continue.

“I was just kind of just sitting there, and JD came out, and he goes, ‘Get up, let’s go, we’re finishing this,’” Keller said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right, let’s go.’ I just wanted one pitch to feel it out, and then we were ready to rock.”

Keller got Mike Tauchman to line out to center, then snared another comebacker by Nico Hoerner to finish the inning. Keller remained standing in the dugout in the bottom of the eighth, trying to prevent his leg from getting stiff. With Keller just seven pitches shy of 100, Shelton opted for Bednar in the ninth.

“I was even curious if he was going to push me, and, when I went down and saw it, he got flushed up pretty well,” Shelton said. “It would have been, probably, a challenging conversation. If you pitch that well, you put yourself in the conversation, which is what we’re looking for.”

The first batter Bednar faced, his former Mt. Lebanon Little League teammate Ian Happ, sent a 2-0 fastball 397 feet into the right field seats for his 15^th home run to cut the Cubs’ deficit to 2-1. Happ also provided what proved to be the game-winning hit in the 10^th inning of the Cubs’ 5-4 win over the Pirates on Thursday night.

“Jeez. I know he lives here, but gosh he has definitely hurt us,” Shelton said. “He’s a good player, man. Just they way he plays defense, switch-hitter, but overall just a really good baseball player.”

Then the Pirates got a big break.

Cody Bellinger hit a grounder to Williams’ backhand at short and appeared to beat his double-clutch throw for a single when he was signaled safe by first base umpire Nick Mahrley. But the Pirates challenged the call, and it was overturned.

“Bellinger can really run, and it gets to my backhand,” Williams said. “I don’t know, it was as close as it gets.”

Dansby Swanson followed with a grounder to Williams, who backhanded the ball and made a throw that left no doubt. Bednar got Seiya Suzuki swinging at a 2-2 fastball to end the game for his 28^th save.

“Coming in and attacking with the fastball, obviously Happ clipped him,” Delay said, “but just being able to reset after that and refocus and get us the win, that’s huge.”