Pitcher Mitch Keller and manager Don Kelly appear to align with Pittsburgh Pirates fans on the big points.
Keller looks to be broken right now, and he needs to be fixed.
How to do it and the urgency of the matter seem to be the areas where gaps need to be filled.
Keller’s latest failed start was emblematic of most of the ones we’ve seen from him over the last month. The 30-year-old right-hander only lasted four innings after allowing five earned runs, seven hits and four walks against just three strikeouts.
He also hit two batters and threw two wild pitches en route to absorbing the loss during an 8-6 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Shohei Ohtani clubs his second homer in as many games! pic.twitter.com/EPYEbU8pBF
— MLB (@MLB) June 11, 2026
“He had a tough time with the command, some walks and hit-by-pitch. … Just looked like he had trouble finishing off batters,” Kelly said Thursday after the loss.
“We have to find something to help him out to get out of this rut.”
Yes. A “rut,” indeed. Not a “blip,” or a “bump in the road,” or just “a slow start.” It’s been a full month — the last half of May and the first half of June.
And those are the months where Keller is normally on point. If you look at Keller’s recent history, he is usually quite good through the All-Star break or even the end of July, then he stumbles down the stretch.
Now, though, Keller is 5-4 on the season with an ERA of 5.14. On May 7, his ERA was 2.87.
Since then, he has gotten out of a start while allowing fewer than four earned runs just once. In each of his last three appearances, the former innings-eater hasn’t completed the fifth, and he has allowed 18 earned runs. He has just one win since that May 7 appearance against Arizona.
“He has done it. He’s been a really good pitcher for us. He’s going to get out of this,” Kelly said. “We need to find a way. … We have to figure something out to help him.”
Clearly, yes.
You are reading a clear admission of the problem from Kelly. But you aren’t getting much in the way of solutions. That applies to Keller himself as well.
“If I had the answer, I would have done that,” Keller said. “So I’m just gonna keep working, just keep working every turn I can, and hopefully it turns around here.”
Against the Dodgers specifically, you could excuse Keller for being too cautious. Los Angeles leads Major League Baseball in OPS (.789), runs (373), batting average (.264) and is second in home runs (94). However, the former All-Star said mentality and approach weren’t a problem Thursday night.
“I was just kind of missing. I wasn’t trying to be too fine,” Keller insisted. “I was trying to be aggressive and fill it up. I was just missing.”
The more media members pulled at Keller after the game, the more grains of an explanation for his recent woes emerged. The chief offender has been his control.
Keller’s strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.15 is on pace to be his worst since his first full season of 2021 (1.88). His walk rate per nine innings (3.2) is his highest since 2022, and his strikeout rate of 6.8 per nine innings is his lowest since 2020.
“Not executing. Walking people is not helping me. I’ve just got to be better. I’ve got to fill (the strike zone) up more. I’ve got to attack the hitters, and just execute with them when I’ve got them in two strikes.”
Actually, Keller’s 2026 numbers with two strikes (.184 batting average against/.584 OPS) and pitching ahead in the count (.222/.511) are nearly identical to his career splits (.180/.534 with two strikes, .210/.519 pitching ahead).
So, maybe it’s something else, like pitch selection or pitch mix.
“I feel like I threw some really good curveballs, and they were laying off of them for whatever reason. They’re really good hitters,” Keller said of the Dodgers. “Maybe I’ve just got to pair them or sequence them better. We’ll get back to the drawing board and get back after it.”
Sure. But hurry up. Get to that drawing board with as many dry-erase markers as possible because the All-Star break is less than a month away. That’s when Keller usually turns into a pumpkin.
The problem is that’s exactly what he has been for the past month, and the Pirates aren’t good enough to allow him to be carved up once every five days.