All-Star Keller goes 7 stellar innings, but late drama stings Bucs

PHOENIX -- The game felt weird to begin with and it stayed weird later, as the Pirates squandered two leads to drop another game in the desert.

The D-backs used a bullpen day on the mound to the tune of seven different pitchers, while Pirates starter and All-Star selection Mitch Keller took a no-hitter two outs into the sixth inning. The pitching duel lasted a while at Chase Field until Arizona’s Corbin Carroll lined a walk-off base hit in the bottom of the 10th to send the Pirates to a 3-2 loss, their fourth straight.

• MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard: Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on FOX

“Today was almost like a Spring Training day, where you never see the same guy twice. That’s challenging,” said manager Derek Shelton, whose team struck out 15 times against an ensemble that saw no hurler throw more than three innings. “And the one thing they did really well is they threw a ton of strikes. They were ahead the entire time, and when you’re ahead, you’re able to execute your offspeed stuff.”

The Pirates snapped a scoreless tie in the sixth, when Jack Suwinski hit a ground-rule double to score Jason Delay.

Meanwhile Keller, who will play in his first career All-Star Game Tuesday in Seattle, was dialed in. The righty allowed one hit through seven shutout innings, and scattered four strikeouts and five walks in his 99 pitches.

“My sweeper was pretty good today,” Keller said. “Kind of leaned on that a lot early in counts, late in the counts. That’s what got me out of some innings. I felt really comfortable with that today.”

With the Pirates ahead, 1-0, things tilted, and the D-backs caught the Bucs out of sync.

Colin Holderman came on in relief in the bottom of the eighth. On his second pitch, Alek Thomas launched a solo home run to right field to tie the game.

The game eventually went to extras. Carlos Santana came on as Pittsburgh’s automatic runner and scored on a single to right by Jared Triolo to reclaim the Pirates’ lead, 2-1, in the 10th.

But with Rodolfo Castro on third, Triolo on second and pinch-hitter Josh Palacios in position to add to the lead, Arizona’s Christian Walker made a sensational play on a grounder at first to likely save two runs and end the inning.

The bottom half didn’t go as well for the Pirates defensively.

D-backs batter Jake McCarthy bunted to move the automatic runner, Dominic Canzone, to third, but the throw to first from David Bednar, who came on in relief to start the inning, was off the mark, allowing both baserunners to be safe.

Then, Thomas laid down a quick bunt that caught the Bucs’ defense in a tough spot. Santana reached to make the play, but second baseman Nick Gonzales had to back Santana up to keep the ball in the infield, and the speed of the ground ball kept Bednar from getting to the bag in time, leaving no one covering first.

“We’re not getting Thomas [anyway],” Shelton said. “Santana makes a heck of a play leaving his feet. He’s going to be making a backwards flip to [Bednar] anyway. … We had some bad luck.”

The bustle led to Canzone scoring the game-tying run. With runners on second and third and one out, the Pirates intentionally walked Ketel Marte to put a force at every base with no outs, the winning run 90 feet away and NL MVP candidate Carroll digging in.

“We’re picking our poison,” Shelton said. “We know we’re getting to Carroll there. But we’re trying to create the force and get a punch-out with [Bednar]. We got the foul tip we didn’t catch. You can’t hang your hat on that. And [Carroll] put a ball in play.”

With four strikeouts on the day, Keller moved past Arizona ace Zac Gallen for second place in the NL in strikeouts. His 129 trails only the 162 of Atlanta’s Spencer Strider and ranks fifth most in all of baseball.

But on the verge of his first All-Star Game next week, Keller wasn’t thinking about accolades after the game in a quiet Pirates clubhouse following his final start of the first half.

“The day doesn’t really matter,” he said. “I’m just trying to go out there and give the best I’ve got every time.”