PITTSBURGH – The last week hasn't been too kind to the Pirates. And after getting swept at home by St. Louis, the team was desperate for a spark to help escape its current funk.
Batterymates Mitch Keller and Henry Davis delivered and then some, with six innings of one-run ball and a pair of home runs, respectively, in the team’s convincing 9-1 victory over the Reds on Friday night at PNC Park.
Keller needed just eight pitches to get through a 1-2-3 first inning, en route to retiring the first six batters he faced. In the third inning, he worked around a Brandon Lowe error and TJ Friedl single to keep Cincinnati off the board. After pitching a 1-2-3 fourth inning, the Reds put together multiple quality at-bats against Keller in the fifth -- forcing him to throw 27 pitches -- but he once again got through the frame unscathed.
Keller allowed a run to score in the sixth inning, but found enough in the tank to not only escape it without any further damage but post a scoreless seventh, as well.
He was given an ovation after walking off the mound and into the dugout. He tied his season high in strikeouts with six, allowed just three hits and walked only one on 104 pitches (71 strikes).
Keller, the eighth-year Pirate, has played the role of stopper so many times over the years. After lasting just five innings in his last start in Milwaukee, it’s his second start in his last three going seven innings.
Davis entered the game without a round tripper in 65 at-bats, but he finished the game with two in the span of nine pitches.
Davis drilled a Statcast-projected 415-foot home run in the fourth inning off of Reds starter Brady Singer. In his next at-bat an inning later, Davis went down on one knee and leaned on a hanging slider from reliever Zach Maxwell, hammering it around the left-field foul pole to secure his second career multihomer game.
The Pirates’ offense took out all of their frustration from the previous days on the Reds, chasing Singer from the game after just 3 1/3 innings. Davis’ blasts were just two of four hit by Pittsburgh, as Bryan Reynolds (443 feet) and Marcell Ozuna (425 feet) also homered in the game.
It was just the second time in the last six games the Pirates scored first.