Keller, Martin exit early in loss to Marlins

Pair of Pirates' Top 30 prospects each suffer an alarming arm injury

September 4th, 2019

PITTSBURGH -- Miguel Rojas homered off closer in the ninth inning and Garrett Cooper took deep to left-center in the 10th, as the Marlins dealt the Pirates a 5-4 loss on Tuesday night at PNC Park that snapped the Bucs’ four-game winning streak.

Pittsburgh’s more pressing concern is the status of two rookies.

Right-hander Mitch Keller, the Pirates’ No. 1 prospect, exited his start in the second inning after being struck on the right wrist by a line drive. Outfield prospect Jason Martin, who slid home to score on a wild pitch in the eighth, left the field carefully holding his left arm while flanked by two athletic trainers.

“Both young guys are trying to get something done the last month,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “Both of them leave the game under situations they wouldn’t have chosen.”

The Pirates seem to have avoided the worst-case scenario with Keller, at least, as the club’s initial exams and imaging revealed that he sustained only a right wrist contusion. Afterward, Keller stood in front of his locker with his hand tightly wrapped inside a brace.

Keller’s status is day to day, the club announced. It would have been fair to expect more concerning news after the scene that played out in the second inning of his eighth Major League start.

“It still hurts, but right off when it hit, the worst comes to your mind,” Keller said. “The initial exam and initial reports were just a contusion and nothing was broken in there. That’s definitely a relief.”

The Pirates can only hope for similarly good news regarding Martin, their No. 16 prospect, who was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis on Tuesday afternoon. After Martin scampered home to put the Bucs ahead by one run in the eighth, Jarlin Garcia landed on the rookie’s left arm. Martin didn’t get up immediately, favoring his left arm in obvious pain.

Martin stood slowly then walked off the field alongside head athletic trainer Bryan Housand and assistant athletic trainer Ben Potenziano. Martin was still being treated after the Pirates’ 78th loss of the season, and the club did not provide an update on the severity of his injury.

“It sucks, just to see a nasty play like that happen. Just a hard play. Can’t really do anything about it,” Keller said. “You feel for him, just because he just came up today, has an unbelievable at-bat to get a guy on base, to be that huge run that we needed. To have him go down, it just sucks.”

Keller’s injury was similarly ill-timed. Coming off a rough start in Philadelphia, the right-hander struck out three of the Marlins’ first four hitters and felt like he was bound for a bounceback performance. It ended when Keller’s first-pitch slider to Cooper was ripped directly back to the mound at 105.5 mph.

“That’s probably the most frustrating thing about it. That’s the best I’ve felt in a long time out there,” Keller said. “Everything was really working. I felt really good and felt like it was going to be one of those games … that was going to be really good for me and for the team. To have that happen, it’s really frustrating.”

Keller threw up both hands to protect himself. The comebacker bounced off his right wrist, near the joint, and into his glove. He immediately went down in pain. Housand hurried out of the dugout to check on Keller, who exited the game without attempting to throw a warmup pitch. Right-hander Clay Holmes, the first of seven relievers to pitch for Pittsburgh, replaced Keller on the mound.

“It’s kind of freaky, but that’s the game,” Keller said. “It hurt really bad. I couldn’t even really move it, so I didn’t want to do anything stupid.”

Adam Frazier recorded three of the Pirates’ four hits of the night, slugging the Bucs’ fourth leadoff homer in their past five games during the first inning then knocking a two-run single to right field off Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara in the fifth.

Martin scored the go-ahead run in the eighth despite the Pirates not recording a hit in the inning. He and Cole Tucker drew back-to-back walks then advanced on Frazier’s sacrifice bunt.

That lead vanished with two outs in the ninth, when Rojas lined a 100.4 mph fastball from Vazquez -- who on Tuesday was named the National League Reliever of the Month for August -- out to center field. Rojas is the only player in the Majors who has gone deep more than once against Pittsburgh’s All-Star closer.

“We all have good days, bad days. I guess today was my bad day,” Vazquez said. “All you’ve got to do is forget about it and come back tomorrow. That’s the beauty of this.”