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 he 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).
“Just filled it up,” Keller said. “Hank was calling a really good game there. I don't think I shook once. Defense was playing unbelievable, offense getting out to the jump they did just made it a lot easier to go out there and try and fill it up and get quick outs.”
“It was great,” Davis said. “Full mix: It’s one of my favorite things about catching him. You can call any pitch in any count, and he executes it. Doesn’t matter if it’s been a couple innings since we called it or not. His ability to do that really helped the team today.”
In addition to earning his third win of the season, Keller lowered his ERA to 2.85. He’s now allowed just 31 hits and only one home run in 41 innings.
While Keller has gotten off to the start he probably envisioned back in Bradenton, Fla., this spring, Davis is working to make right on a frustrating April, entering the game batting just .154. The fourth-year catcher entered the game without a roundtripper 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. After eight pitches and four foul balls 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 and the first three-RBI game of his career.
“I’ve hit homers in the past with the swing not right, but seeing my barrel work through the middle of the field … I’ve been doing it in batting practice for a while,” Davis said. “Old, bad habits have been taking over in the game. To see it happen, to take a fastball to the middle of the field really felt good.”
He credited the breakthrough to some strong batting practice sessions in Milwaukee that hadn't yet translated into on-the-field success -- until now.
“It was pretty frustrating how long it took,” Davis said. “Made some adjustments today. I finally feel like it clicked.”
Pittsburgh's offense took out all of its frustration from recent games on the Reds, chasing Singer after just 3 1/3 innings. It was just the second time in the last six games the Pirates scored first. 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.
“I don’t know [what got into Davis], but I like it,” manager Don Kelly said. “He had great at-bats, stayed through the middle. I think the second at-bat was really impressive, the at-bat in total. Being able to foul off that many pitches and stay on a slider and catch it out front and drive it to left.”