Royals’ Keller pays for mistakes against Vogelbach as Brewers wrap up sweep
Right-hander Brad Keller looked every bit the ace of the Kansas City Royals’ pitching staff a week ago with his first career shutout. This time out, he made two big mistakes that the Milwaukee Brewers capitalized upon.
Keller allowed five runs on five hits, including two homers, and three walks in five innings. He struck out four. All five runs he allowed came on a pair of home runs by Brewers first baseman Daniel Vogelbach as the Royals fell 5-3 at Miller Park Sunday afternoon.
The Royals (21-32) were swept in the three-game series. They’ll play their final seven games at home beginning Monday night.
Keller hadn’t given up a home run in his seven previous starts this season. But Vogelbach blasted a 3-2 fastball mid-thigh high and over the heart of the plate an estimated 429 feet to center field for a two-run homer with two outs in the first inning. It marked just the third extra-base hit against Keller this season.
Vogelbach’s sixth-inning three-run home run also came on a 3-2 fastball.
“I, obviously, don’t ever want to put guys on,” Keller said. “So I tried to go right after him. He put two really good swings on two pitches.”
Keller threw 29 first-inning pitches, though the Royals had the chance to turn a first-inning double play one batter before Vogelbach’s first homer. They failed to do so after the third baseman Erick Mejia fielded the grounder and floated his throw to Nicky Lopez at second base.
Lopez got upended by baserunner Christian Yelich as the throw carried him into Yelich’s slide, but Lopez managed to tag Yelich on the helmet. They recorded just the one out and Vogelbach came to the plate in the first with a runner on.
“It has been pretty consistent,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “If we don’t make some of the plays we need to make, they end up hurting us. And that hurt him the first time around. Then he was really rolling.”
Keller walked three batters the first time through the Brewers’ batting order, but he retired the side in order for the first time in the third inning.
He retired 10 in a row from the end of the second until the first batter of the sixth inning.
“In the first inning, I felt like I had really command,” Keller said. “I felt like I got ahead of most of them. Then I just kind of tried too hard to put them away and fell behind 3-2. Especially to Yelich.
“I learned early on they weren’t going to swing at my slider, so we had to go away from that and start attacking with the fastball. I kept trying with the slider and it was costing me a lot of pitches. I tried to go right after them after that with the fastball.”
The Royals pulled within a run, 2-1, in the sixth after a leadoff double by Mejia. A Lopez groundout advanced Mejia to third base and scored on a groundout by Whit Merrifield, who played in his 300th consecutive game.
Unfortunately for the Royals, Keller didn’t record an out in the sixth inning. He allowed back-to-back singles by Yelich and Ryan Braun followed by a Vogelbach three-run home run to left-center. That ended Keller’s outing.
“We get back in the game, finally score a run and are down by one,” Keller said. “I go in there and two batters, Braun and Vogelbach, I felt like I just made some mental errors to them. Pitch selection wasn’t my best in those two ABs. It was just really frustrating, all the way around.”
Salvador Perez launched a two-run homer in the ninth. Perez extended his hitting streak to eight consecutive games. He also has eight home runs this season despite missing 20 games.
Brewers starting pitcher Josh Lindblom held the Royals to one run on three hits in 5 1/3 innings. Royals hitters popped out on the infield six times and had another soft lineout in the first five innings against Lindblom.
“They’re just not squaring it up. They don’t see a guy well enough,” Matheny said. “I don’t know what exactly to attribute it to. It’s pretty rare to see that many. It’s not like they were high pop-ups or fly balls to the outfield. We just weren’t finding the barrel today. We want them aggressive. I’m never going to sit here and tell you they were too aggressive.”
This story was originally published September 20, 2020 at 4:04 PM.
