KANSAS CITY -- The recent command struggles of Royals right-hander Brad Keller, who opened the season as the team ace, continue to mount.
Keller made it through just five-plus innings in a 7-0 loss to the Phillies on Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium.
Keller gave up five hits and six runs, five earned. More troubling, he threw just 57 strikes out of 102 pitches, walked four batters and hit a batter. He now has walked a team-high 32 hitters in 52 1/3 innings, including 12 in his last three starts over 15 1/3 innings.
“He’s fighting his mechanics, which in turn keeps him fighting his command,” manager Ned Yost said. “Walks hurt him, especially to guys lower in the order.
“He’s just battling through it. He got through five and we were kind of in the game a little bit. His head is flying, he’s yanking pitches a little bit. It’s something he’s working on and will continue to do so.”
Keller actually had a solid beginning to his start, breezing through the first two innings while retiring six of seven hitters, five on ground balls.
“After the first two innings, I thought he’d settle in,” Yost said. “After that, he really started to labor.”
Keller got the first out in the third on a strikeout, but then he walked No. 9 hitter Andrew Knapp. Andrew McCutchen singled and Jean Segura walked.
Keller made a fantastic pitch, a low slider, to strike out Bryce Harper. But Rhys Hoskins rifled a two-run single to left, sending Segura to third. A passed ball scored the third run.
"I felt like I kept yanking my head and pulling off a lot of pitches," Keller said. "We had a really good game plan going into the game, just didn't quite execute exactly how we wanted to. Tried to go in on guys, yanked it and got pitches back over the middle. They didn't miss them."
Keller gave up another run in the fourth, then he gave up a triple and a walk in the sixth with none out before Yost went to the bullpen. Both of those runs scored.
Keller remains puzzled why his mechanics, so sound earlier this season, suddenly have betrayed him.
"I felt really good,” he said. “Good game plan, body felt well. I just got into a little funk in the third inning and started yanking my head. Trying to put too much pressure on myself, and I started yanking pitches and throwing myself back into a rut.
"It's kind of been the same thing. It's like an evolving thing that we're trying to stop real quickly. It feels like we stop one thing and then that causes another thing. We'll get it right, and we'll get back on the horse."
The Royals’ offense, meanwhile, which had 15-run and 12-run outbursts in the last week, was quieted by Phillies starter Zach Eflin, who gave up just four hits in the shutout.