Walks -- and a nosebleed? -- spoil Keller's start to 2nd half

KANSAS CITY -- By the time Brad Keller motioned toward the Royals dugout Friday night, his nose was bleeding profusely with no signs of stopping.

About five minutes later, home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman told the group at the mound -- Keller, Royals head athletic trainer Kyle Turner and manager Mike Matheny -- that the game needed to move along, and Keller was going to have to pitch with gauze in his nose.

So that’s what Keller did, although the break wasn’t enough to stop the damage of Tampa Bay's offense in Kansas City’s 7-3 loss at Kauffman Stadium.

“That was like the most bizarre thing that I think could say happened to me on the mound,” Keller said of the random nosebleed.

Nothing caused Keller’s nose to bleed, as far as he and the Royals know. With one out in the fourth inning, Brett Phillips got ahead in the count and took another ball from Keller, who then motioned to the dugout. Matheny and Turner came to the mound, and Keller held a towel to his nose while Turner held the pitcher's face toward the sky.

“We were just trying to get it under control so he could keep pitching,” Matheny said. “Trainer did a good job of getting it clogged, I guess is all you could do at that point.”

When Dreckman signaled that it was time to get moving, Turner put gauze up Keller’s left nostril. The right-hander threw 15 more pitches with it sticking out of his nose.

“It was really weird,” Keller said. “I couldn’t, like, breathe. It was weird. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.”

"To see him stay in with some gauze in his nose, it's a grinder right there,” Phillips said. “I respect it."

It didn’t change the Rays’ approach, though. Keller walked Phillips on the next pitch then allowed a bases-clearing double to Yandy Díaz, giving the Rays a four-run lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The Royals' offense did little to catch up, out-hitting the Rays 12-8 but finishing just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranding nine on base.

Entering the second half of the season, there are some clear objectives for the Royals to meet as they look toward finishing a disappointing 2022 campaign on a high note. Most come on the pitching side, and one is clearer than the rest: reducing walks.

The Royals have given away more free bases (362) than any other team in baseball.

Eight of those came on Friday, including five from Keller. He finished the fourth inning but had to hand it over to the bullpen after that, having allowed five runs (four earned) to score with two wild pitches and a hit batsman.

“We didn't do him any favors by expanding out of the zone, so there were a lot of walks in there,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I know the hits didn't come until later, but we took advantage of getting in some counts and not expanding."

Keller’s fastball command was off from the start, and he really only gained a feel for his slider later in the outing, registering just five whiffs on 37 swings.

“If you can’t find the feel for your fastball, it’s going to be a long night,” Matheny said. “Right from the top, it seemed like he couldn’t really find it. We’ve talked about that, whether it’s the movement, but just kind of had a tough time getting any kind of rhythm.”

Keller’s loss snapped a three-start win streak in which he recorded a 2.41 ERA, and much of that success stemmed from being “synced up” in his delivery, which allows him to control the movement on his four-seam fastball much more efficiently.

On Friday, he was falling off from his delivery, causing him to feel like he was yanking his fastball. The result was watching it cut across the plate for some bad misses -- and trying to make up for it solely with his slider.

“Whenever we got into a positive count, we went to the slider,” Keller said. “Sometimes we even worked backwards, where we threw a slider early to get into a positive count, and then hopefully execute one or two fastballs later on. Just kind of be super creative with how we go about it. Even in [the fourth] inning, got myself into some trouble, but I think it was a pretty good slider to Díaz, it’s just I threw so many of them that he’s probably going up there sitting on it.”