Dodgers tag Mitch Keller for 5 runs in 3rd inning, hand Pirates 5th consecutive loss

The Pittsburgh Pirates were hoping that Mitch Keller could stop their losing skid. Instead, the anchor of their pitching staff delivered his worst start of the season.

Keller surrendered a two-run home run to Shohei Ohtani in a five-run third inning and gave up seven runs in a 9-5 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night at Dodger Stadium in the opener of a three-game series and six-game West Coast road trip.

It was the fifth consecutive loss for the Pirates (56-59), who were swept by the San Diego Padres, and their seventh in eight games. The Pirates slipped to fourth place and 10 games back in the NL Central, just a half-game ahead of the last-place Cincinnati Reds, and are 4½ games behind the New York Mets for the third wild card.

“We’ve just got to keep on going and continue to play,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “And we’re playing really good teams. We’re playing the top teams in the National League West. We’ve just got to figure out a way to finish games, like I said when we were at home. We just got off to a tough start and couldn’t catch back up.”

Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty (9-5) recorded 10 strikeouts against one walk while allowing four runs on nine hits on 110 pitches in 5⅔ innings. Meantime, Keller (10-6) lasted only four innings, giving up seven hits and two walks with five strikeouts on 95 pitches as the Dodgers feasted on his breaking balls.

“They’re good hitters,” Keller said of the Dodgers. “I thought we used the fastball pretty well. It’s probably the only pitch that really didn’t get hit.”

Keller got off to a quick start by striking out Ohtani, the reigning AL MVP, and Home Run Derby champion Teoscar Hernandez. But Keller left an 0-2 cutter over the middle that Freddie Freeman sent to right field for a solo home run to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

When Keller walked the No. 9 hitter, Andy Pages, with one out in the second inning, it set the stage for Ohtani. The Dodgers designated hitter crushed a 1-2 slider at the bottom of the strike zone 448 feet and off the batter’s eye in center field for his NL-leading 35th home run.

Keller then got into more trouble, as Hernandez worked a full-count walk and Freeman doubled off the left field wall. Will Smith followed with a bloop single to right to score both and make it 5-0, then advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single through short by Miguel Rojas to give the Dodgers a six-run lead.

“With this lineup, if you miss on the plate with breaking stuff, they’re going to hurt you,” Shelton said. “And that’s what happened.”

The Pirates answered, as Oneil Cruz crushed his 18th homer to lead off the fourth, hitting Flaherty’s 2-2 slider for a 396-foot line drive to right to cut it to 6-1. Rowdy Tellez and Ke’Bryan Hayes both singled but were stranded as Flaherty struck out Yasmani Grandal to end the frame.

The Dodgers (67-49) added another run against Keller in the fourth. Jason Heyward hit a leadoff double and scored on a single to right by Hernandez.

The Pirates wouldn’t go down quietly, as Kiner-Falefa and Reynolds reached on singles and Joey Bart blasted a three-run home run to left field to make it 7-4 in the fifth inning.

Keller was replaced in the fifth by 32-year-old righty Domingo German, whose contract was selected Friday from Triple-A Indianapolis. German got off to a slow start in a 33-pitch fifth, as he walked Smith to start the inning then battled Kike Hernandez in an 11-pitch at-bat with two outs. Hernandez hit a line drive to left that went off the tip of Reynolds’ glove and over the wall for a two-run homer and 9-4 Dodgers lead.

German, who pitched the 24th perfect game in major league history in June 2023, kept the Dodgers scoreless over the final three innings to save the Pirates from using their depleted bullpen.

“That was very big,” Shelton said of German, who threw 75 pitches in four innings. “We knew our bullpen was really beat up today. We were in a tough spot. … He did a good job covering the game for us. That was really important for the state of where our bullpen is at.”

The Pirates tacked on another run in the ninth, when Cruz (3 for 5) singled to right to score Reynolds, but couldn’t overcome the deficit. Now, they have to hope that rookie phenom Paul Skenes can stop the losing streak Saturday night.

“We’re going to flush this game, come back tomorrow and act like it never happened,” Keller said. “We’re going to start the game off 0-0 and try to start a new streak, a winning streak, and see what we can do. We know what’s at stake and what we can do.”