By Hal McCoy
When Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Mitch Keller pitches in Great American Ball Park, he has to feel like Joe Btfslplk, the Li’l Abner cartoon character who always had a black cloud over his head.
Keller made his major league debut on May 27, 2019 in GABP and gave up six runs in the first inning.
And it hasn’t gotten any better for him.
On Sunday afternoon, he faced 16 Cincinnati Reds, 10 reached base and seven scored, launching the Reds to a 10-2 victory and the series win, three games to one.
It was Cincinnati’s fourth series win in five series since the All-Star break.
Giving Reds starter Chase Burns a seven-run lead in the third inning is like giving him the Hope Diamond, and the Pirates had no hope.
Burns pitched six innings and gave up one run, two hits, both singles, walked two and struck out nine.
He even endured a 26-minute rain delay and finished with a flourish, striking out the last five Pirates he faced.
Burns is 13-1 and has won 12 decisions in a row.
Keller retired Elly De La Cruz to open the bottom of the first, then Sal Steward unloaded his 24th home run, a 420-foot cloud-scraper into the left field upper deck, his 24th home run that may have brought the rain.
JJ Bleday singled and scored on Tyler Stephenson’s double and Stephenson scored on Nathaniel Lowe’s single for a 3-0 lead.
To display how ineffective Kelly is on the GABP mound, he gave up a 429-foot home to light-hitting Ke’Bryan Hayes (.145) in the second inning, his fourth homer.
Keller started the third and retired nobody — a double by Lowe and walks to Dane Myers and Noelvi Marte to fill the bases.
Noah Murdock replaced Keller and Matt McLain produced a run with a sacrifice fly and De La Cruz singled for two runs and a 7-0 lead.
Burns walked Jake Mangum to open the game, but he was caught stealing. Burns retired the next eight.
But in the top of the third Burns hit Mangum with a pitch, his first hit batsman of the season. Was it in retaliation for the Pirates hitting Sal Stewart Saturday?
Mangum came around to score on Pittsburgh’s first hit, a single by Bryan Reynolds.
The rain was falling heavily at the point and the grounds crew spent considerable time manicuring the field. Finally, Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly came onto the field, demanding that the tarpaulin should cover the field.
“If somebody gets hurt on this field, it’s on you,” Kelly said to umpire/crew chief Dan Bellino.
Bellino had heard enough and ejected him. Kelly obviously wanted a rain delay so Chase Burns could not return to the game.
It didn’t work.
Play resumed after a 26-minute delay despite water covering the fringes of the warning track and the obliteration of the foul lines.
And Burns was back, bigger and better than ever, pitching as if wearing galoshes. The rain had no effect.
He walked the first batter, then struck out Spencer Horwitz to end the fourth.
He gave up a one-out singled in the fifth, then struck out the last five batters he faced.
And Burns said he was better after the delay because he was a bit angry.
“It sucked,” he said about the conditions. “Raining constantly and not knowing if they were going to put the tarp on or not. I know both teams wanted to get the game in. I’ve never pitched in conditions like that. Usually they stop the game.”
They didn’t stop because it was the last game the Reds and Pirates play against each other. And the Pirates won seven of the 11.
“I definitely didn’t feel good sitting in the dugout,” he said. “I just locked back in, I was pumped up to go back out there. I was just pissed off kinda, so I wanted to go out there and get through it.”
Burns said he thought hitters have been looking for his high fastballs, “So we concentrated today on keeping my fastballs down and that made my sliders even better.”
Burns has now won 12 straight decisions and the Reds are 16-5 over his 21 starts.
“Every time you take the ball your job is to put up as many zeros as possible, try to get the team in its best position to win,” he said.
The rain was not the only moisture shed.
After the game, Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson burst into tears during an on-the-field interview with Jim Day.
Stephenson’s first at bat of his career with the Reds was a home run. And when he batted in the eighth inning Sunday he homered — maybe his last at bat in a Reds uniform.
He is the centerpiece of a lot of trade talks from different teams with Monday’s trade deadline on the horizon and Stephenson was emotional about it.
“Oh, man. I’m going to be emotional,” he said, his voice breaking as his chin dropped to his chest. “The home run was pretty special. Yeah.”
He paused to sniff, took a deep breath and said, “Yeah, I don’t know. There is a lot going on. . .yeah.”
And he broke down, ending the interview.