Matheny Praises Keller Despite Loss: ‘Some of His Best Stuff'

In a 2022 season filled with inconsistency and flat-out struggle for much of the Kansas City Royals' starting rotation, Brad Keller has been a beaming light. In 17-2/3 innings of work, the righty has a 2.55 ERA and is playing some of the best baseball of his career.

That wasn't necessarily the case on Friday night against the Seattle Mariners, but Keller still managed to impress manager Mike Matheny.

Across 4-2/3 innings, Keller gave up six hits and four runs to the Mariners' lineup. Three of those runs were earned, and Keller issues a pair of walks as well. The stat line itself didn't tell the whole story, however, as he struck out four hitters and induced a Royals-high eight swings and misses on the night. A pair of fourth-inning bloop hits and a fielding error ultimately derailed Keller's otherwise productive outing, and Matheny agrees. He spoke about his No. 2 pitcher's outing after the game.

"He should've been walking out of there with six shutout [innings]," Matheny said. "It was one play. You get into the fourth, you've got two busted bats and a couple of guys get on but we've got a double-play ball. Whether he gets out of the way or whether he fields it clean, we're walking out of there with a zero and I think he's at 59 pitches, maybe, through four and sailing."

Damage control is always an issue for pitchers, and fielding is never a certainty. That's one of the main draws with Zack Greinke, the Royals' de facto ace in 2022. Throughout his career, Greinke's delivery has allowed him to end in a natural fielding position and his instincts and reaction time are both superb. He's a six-time Gold Glove award winner, which is a testament to his excellence in the field. He's also known for remaining composed. Keller may not be on that level, but he's adequate in his own right. One mistake in Friday's game set him back, though.

Following the aforementioned bloop singles, Mariners' top prospect Julio Rodriguez crushed a double off Keller and outfielder Jarred Kelenic tripled. Cal Raleigh and Adam Frazier struck out and grounded out after that, but the damage was already done and runs were on the board. Keller later allowed a single to Eugenio Suarez and a walk to J.P. Crawford with two outs in the fifth inning, thus ending his start. Despite all of that, Matheny thinks he had some of his best pitches going.

"I thought that was some of his best stuff," Matheny said. "Fastball was coming out clean, [he] even threw some good changeups. Just, unfortunately, one play got him. But he's been impressive this whole season and really hadn't had the full results that he deserves."

Keller indeed did pitch well on Friday night when casting his error aside, mixing in a variety of pitch types and locations. His fastballs were both working up and down the zone, and his slider missed when intended. He left some changeups high but in general, it was another promising outing from the 26-year-old.

It's impossible to tell what would have happened had Keller gotten out of that fateful fourth inning. Matheny's use of the word "sailing" was accurate, but each subsequent inning brings about new challenges. One thing is for certain, though: Keller won't commit an error in every one of his starts. The widescale results from his 2022 campaign have been positive, and one lukewarm night hasn't changed that.

In what's still a very young season, every Keller outing brings about more and more reason to believe that this new-and-improved version of him is here to stay. Although the results didn't show it on Friday, the overall process was pretty tidy. Until Keller's next start, Matheny and company will still be pleased with his progress in year five.