Royals struggling to support Keller

KANSAS CITY -- Other than getting a win, the next best thing that Royals right-handed pitcher Brad Keller could do Saturday was eat up some innings to give his overworked bullpen a light night.

Keller did just that, tying his longest outing of the season by going seven innings in a 9-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium.

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After starting the game with a 10-pitch at-bat to Byron Buxton, Keller threw 97 total pitches and gave up four earned runs on five hits. He walked three and fanned four.

This is the third time this season that Keller provided seven innings, but the way he did it was different than any of his other starts.

He threw his sinker 37 times, the fifth most he’s thrown the pitch in a single start in his career and the most since early July last season. He also threw 37 sliders, 17 fastballs and six changeups.

“I felt my stuff was pretty good tonight,” Keller said. “I didn’t use a four-seam until later on in the game, which is good. I really liked my slider tonight. I got some big outs on changeups as well, so I felt pretty good about my stuff.”

Of the five hits Keller gave up, three came off his sinker. Despite only getting a swing and a miss on the pitch five percent of the time, he liked the way the sinker felt. The 26-year-old likes to have his four-seam fastball in his back pocket to make it more effective late in the game.

“They have a lot of power, so we went to the sinker early in the game to be able to pull out the four-seam [later], and being able to locate it in the later innings was big for me,” he said.

There were reasons why Keller chose to throw so many sinkers in this start, and most of that has to do with the Twins' dangerous hitters.

“They have a deep lineup, so you have to go hitter by hitter with them,” Keller said. “You can’t try to do too much and just keep them in the ballpark and the hits on the ground.”

Keller has used his sinker 24 percent of the time this season, but he has given up more hits (17) with it than any other pitch. He’s still searching for his first strikeout using a slider.

“That has always been a big part of his repertoire. He’s just got so much movement,” manager Mike Matheny said, “especially because he has so much cut on the other side of the plate. … It’s not fun to face.”

Lately, Keller’s sinker has become his second most used pitch after his slider. In April, Keller used his fastball nearly 37 percent of the time, but that number has dipped this month to just 23 percent.

Last month, Keller boasted a 2.19 ERA behind that fastball, but since then he is allowing 4.32 runs per nine innings. Matheny likes how Keller is pitching right now.

“He threw well enough to give us a chance to win,” Matheny said. “Unfortunately, they had a couple two-out hits. And we always talk about that’s what we’re looking for, and we did have one opportunity in the sixth and couldn't get our big hit. He pitched good enough for us to win, and he’s done that numerous times for us this season.”

The Royals average just 1.24 runs per game when Keller toes the rubber. That’s the lowest run support for any pitcher in the Majors. Behind him is Julio Urías, who gets an average 2.2 runs of support per game for the Dodgers.

Keller helped out a tired bullpen that had pitched 14 2/3 innings the previous three games. Gabe Speier gave up a run in the eighth inning, and Foster Griffin allowed four runs in the ninth as the Twins sent the Royals to a season-high 11 games under .500.

“Yeah, I think that was big,” Keller said about the length of his start. “That’s kind of my goal anytime I go out there is to go deep in the ballgame. I’m pretty happy about going seven innings tonight, and I felt really good. I think it’s important in any start to get into the seventh.”