Brad Keller on Mixed Bag Start: ‘Unnecessary Pressure on Myself'

Keller knows he made things more difficult than they needed to be.

The Kansas City Royals lost their Saturday night outing against the visiting Minnesota Twins and in the process, the club lost the series overall. In the process, starting pitcher Brad Keller dropped his individual record to 1-4 on the year.

Among the reasons why the Royals lost, Keller ranked near the top. The 26-year-old righty pitched an up-and-down game, allowing just five hits and four runs. He struck out four, yet he walked three. He tossed seven innings, although the damage was already done earlier on. All-in-all, Keller's outing lies somewhere between bad and good on the spectrum of his 2022 performances.

May 10, 2022; Arlington, Texas, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Brad Keller (56) delivers a pitch to the Texas Rangers during the first inning of a baseball game at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports

Leadoff walks, as they have been for other Royals pitchers, were a problem for Keller against Minnesota. Of his four earned runs allowed, two of them came in the third inning and the other two came in the sixth. In both frames, the opening batter was issued a walk and eventually came around to score. Keller made other mistakes throughout his outing, but he singled out those walks as back-breakers on Saturday.

"I think walks hurt me there," Keller said. "Especially leadoff walks. I think I had three of them. Two of them came around to score, which put unnecessary pressure on myself... any time that happens, it's going to hurt. It's going to come back and bite you, so that's what happened tonight."

Brad Keller pitch chart, courtesy of Baseball Savant.

All three of Keller's walks were very clear misses, and two of the three came via a fastball. Three of his four singles allowed were of that same variety, as his sinker and four-seam fastball command just weren't up to snuff relative to the rest of his season. Of Keller's 97 pitches thrown, 37 of them were sliders and another 37 were sinkers. He largely avoided his changeup (six) and in the latter stages of the evening, he went to the four-seamer for a little bit of extra deception

The Royals are in the middle of a lengthy stretch of games without time off. As a result, their bullpen has been worn rather thin over the last several days. Many starters have failed to go deep in games but even when he's not on his A-game, Keller typically does a solid job of fighting through adversity to provide some relief to the relief. This latest start was more of the same, as he worked through seven frames and wanted to take care of an eighth. He understood the significance of that, and he said it's always his expectation. 

"Yeah, I mean, that was big," Keller said. "That's kind of my goal any time I go out there — just get deep in the ballgame. I'm pretty happy with going seven innings tonight. I felt really good and tried to go back out there for the eighth, but I just think that was important. Any start to get into the seventh is big." 

Of Keller's eight starts this season, three-quarters of them have gone six innings or more. That's an impressive feat, as is maintaining a 3.20 ERA despite being on a team that doesn't provide much margin for error with respect to run support. Despite not having his best command for a game against an American League Central rival, he did give Kansas City a chance to keep things somewhat close. His next time out, he'll look to get back on the winning path.