Brad Keller bounces back from a shaky first inning as the Royals tie with the Brewers
.jpg "Kansas City Royals’ Brad Keller looks in for the sign during a spring training baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Friday, March 5, 2021, in Surprise, Ariz.")
It sure looked like Kansas City Royals right-hander Brad Keller’s final Cactus League start of the spring was going sideways in a hurry.
Instead of him getting tuned up for the regular season, it appeared the Milwaukee Brewers lineup led by former Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain was ready to do the tuning at Keller’s expense. That was until a couple runs scored and Keller kicked it into another gear.
Keller allowed two runs on five hits and struck out six in four innings as the Royals tied the Brewers, 6-6, in front of an announced crowd of 2,197 at Surprise Stadium on Saturday.
Outfielder Kyle Isbel continued to make his push for an spot on the Opening Day roster. He went 2 for 3 with a walk, a run scored and two RBIs for the Royals (14-8-4). Emmanuel Rivera, Erick Mejia and Nick Loftin hit doubles in the game.
Keller allowed the first three batters of the game to reach on a single that just cleared the second baseman and dropped into right field, a grounder through a shifted infield and a walk.
The bases were loaded seemingly in the blink of an eye, and the Royals actually had action in their bullpen in the first inning after Keller gave up a two-run single to left-handed slugger Daniel Vogelbach.
“Early on, got a little flare job and a ball that beat the shift and a walk, so I put myself in a hole real early,” Keller said. “I felt like I battled out of it pretty good. I just left a pitch that caught more plate to Vogelbach (than I had wanted) when I knew he was swinging. I wanted to go a little bit more in right there. After that, I felt like I settled down.”
Keller, who will start the season opener on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium, retired the next 10 batters after Vogelbach’s single. Keller struck out five of those next 10 batters and allowed just two more hits before he exited the game.
Keller credited catcher Cam Gallagher for setting up more on the plate and encouraging Keller to pitch to contact and not be “so fine” with that pitch.
“Other than that, I felt like I got more on the attack mode,” Keller said. “I feel like getting ahead early is a big deal for me, and I feel like after that first inning I was able to do that and kind of avoided three-ball counts and just went after guys.”
Royals manager Mike Matheny described the outing as a “good last one.”
“He was probably down to his last hitter before we probably would’ve got him out of there,” Matheny said of Keller’s first inning. “... I thought he did a real nice job on the next three. A seven-pitch inning, getting right back into a groove, pounding the strike zone.”
In the fifth inning, reliever Greg Holland walked the first two batters he faced then gave up an RBI double. A ball lost in the sun by center fielder Michael A. Taylor also cost Holland in the inning.
Holland left with three runs across in the inning, one out and two men left on base. He gave up four hits and a walk. He hadn’t allowed a run in six previous appearances this spring training.
Collin Snider, Josh Staumont and Jon Heasley limited the Brewers to one run in the final 4 2/3 innings. Heasley struck out four of the six batters he faced in a two-inning stint.
The Royals trailed 6-2, but scored the game’s final four runs.
Merrifield back on the infield
Whit Merrifield started at second base for the fifth consecutive time on Friday night. It also marked his eighth start at second this spring training, matching Nicky Lopez for the most during Cactus League play.
While Matheny hasn’t made many declarations about starting jobs or final decisions on the Opening Day roster, the recent trend of Merrifield seeing a lot of time at second base certainly raises the question of whether he might garner more playing time there than the outfield to start the season.
This spring, Merrifield has also logged innings in right field. In the past, he has played every position except catcher and shortstop in major-league games.
“He has done a lot of work to stay relevant everywhere, which is not easy to do,” Matheny said. “But he has looked good everywhere we’ve put him.”
The offensive catalyst and leadoff hitter, Merrifield is a two-time MLB hits leader. The 32-year-old played all 162 games in 2019 and all 60 games last season. He has the longest active consecutive-games-played streak in the majors with 307.
Second base is viewed as less strenuous on the body than the outfield.
“Our sports science people would say so, just from measuring the overall workloads in the outfield — especially center field,” Matheny said. “Measuring ground covered and intensity, center field is the one, especially in a stadium like Kauffman, that’s extremely difficult and does have a chance to beat the body up a little bit more than other spots.
“Whit has always said the same thing too. He’s always said that when he gets to second base, it’s just a different load on his body.”
On the backfields
The Royals and Texas Rangers played a four-inning minor-league game on the Rangers side of the training complex in Surprise on Saturday morning.
Catcher M.J. Melendez hit a two-run homer to right field in his lone at-bat. Meanwhile, Bobby Witt Jr. and Nick Pratto also recorded hits. Witt singled and scored on Pratto’s double.
This story was originally published March 27, 2021 at 7:20 PM with the headline "Brad Keller bounces back from a shaky first inning as the Royals tie with the Brewers."
