Pirates starter Mitch Keller was hammered early in this one as he gave up more earned runs (7) than outs (6) in a 10-2 loss to the Reds. Keller gave up six hits, seven runs and walked four in just 2.0+ innings of work to put the Pirates in a 7-0 hole. Don Kelly also got ejected during a “rain delay” as the groundscrew continued to work on the field during a steady rain. With this loss, the Pirates dropped three-of-four to the Reds at the worst time of the season. Jim and DiNardo recap this stinker on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti Bros. You can watch/listen here:

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Here’s my 3 takeaways from this disaster of a game…

Nightmare Scenario Activated with Keller and His Extension

I don’t know what the Pirates can do with Mitch Keller at this point. After his latest dud Sunday, his ERA drops to 5.29. Before this season, at least you could say Keller at least eats inning when he doesn’t have it. He was quality start Mitch. Or he’d at least get through five. I would kill for that version of Mitch Keller to show back up at this point. He’s been awful this season. His last two starts before this game was promising, he looked like he was bouncing back but this one wiped out all of that good equity. He stunk in this one and basically was throwing BP to the Reds lineup from the start. It was his shortest start since July 28, 2025 in San Francisco. And here’s the worst part. They likely missed their window to trade him. There was a lot of talk in the offseason that they would trade Keller to open up some payroll for other pieces and they could have pulled that off. I’m not sure about now.

Keller is under team control for two more seasons and he’s owed $18.4M next season and $20.4M in 2028. This is the nightmare outcome that could happen when you sign a deal like that. With the way he’s been pitching this season, you’d likely have to attach a prospect with him to dump him and the salary or eat some of that money back. I’m not sure what you do at this point, but if you’re going to buy at the deadline and go for it…you can’t run Keller out there every fifth day to start.

Embarrassing Performance

There’s not many ways to put it…this series was an embarrassing performance by the whole team in Cincinnati with the season on the line essentially. You can’t lose three-of-four to the only team behind you in the division. It was an absolute failure at all levels. They only had four hits in this loss! And for the series: Paul Skenes stunk, Mitch Keller stunk, the bullpen stunk, the offense stunk, the Ryan O’Hearn injury stunk. And the series finishes about 24 hours before the trade deadline as Ben Cherington continues to try and improve the team. This team is a game under .500 now and you could argue that buying anything at this point is foolish. They still need at least one relief arm (if not two), probably a starter and you could use some right-handed hitting. Cherington said they would be buying despite what the team does on the field this week so it’ll be interesting to see what they do, but I’m going to guess it’ll be small deals (like Camilo Doval) and players that have years of control for next year and beyond.

Horwitz Returns and Doval’s Debut

Spencer Horwitz returned in this one which is a welcomed addition to this lineup especially with the O’Hearn injury, but he had a tough assignment in Chase Burns for the first MLB pitching he’s seen in more than a month. Not surprisingly, he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Then Camilo Doval made his Pirates debut in a 9-2 game. He got the first out and then gave up a solo home run to Tyler Stephenson. One run in one inning of work on Sunday. I think Doval will be fine, but it was just fitting for this season for the bullpen and fitting for this game that he gave up a home run right away.

Ball is now in Ben Cherington’s court to make a decision at this deadline. What do you think they’ll do? Comment below if you think they’ll buy or sell.