Mitch Keller finishes off 2nd-half slide with a loss, as Brewers beat Pirates for series win

Mitch Keller won 10 games before the All-Star break but couldn’t quite put his finger on what has gone wrong since, as the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander completed another second-half slide.

In his final start of the season, Keller saw positive signs with an uptick in his fastball velocity and six strikeouts in five innings. But the outcome was his seventh loss in his past eight decisions.

The NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers scored three runs off Keller on their way to a 5-2 win Thursday afternoon before 16,797 in the home finale at PNC Park to clinch the three-game series and season series (7-6).

“Everything just felt like it was in sync,” Keller said. “I felt really good out there. Yeah, everything felt loose and just felt good. Obviously disappointing outcome, but happy with that outing for sure.”

It marked the second consecutive season that Keller (11-12) got off to a strong start but faded after the All-Star break. After going 10-5 with a 3.46 ERA in 19 starts in the first half, Keller went 1-7 with a 5.70 ERA in 12 starts in the second half.

In 2023, when Keller was named an All-Star and set a franchise single-season record for strikeouts (210) by a righty, he was 9-4 with a 3.31 ERA before the break and 4-5 with a 5.59 ERA in the second half.

“I think that’s going to be where we spend our focus,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “In two years, got off to a really good start and then just wasn’t consistent in the second half. Now that we have two years in a row like that, that should be our focus of what are we doing. A full encompassing of everything he does throughout the second half.”

The Pirates (74-85) finished 39-42 (.481) at home, the same home record they had last season. They drew a total attendance of 1,720,361 this season, their best since 2017. The Pirates finish the season with a three-game weekend series starting Friday at the New York Yankees.

The Brewers (91-68) got six scoreless innings from Aaron Civale (8-9), who struck out five while giving up three hits and one walk. In three starts against the Pirates this season — including one with Tampa Bay — Civale has held them to two runs on 12 hits and four walks with 12 strikeouts.

“This guy, he has an idea (how) to pitch,” Shelton said. “He’s able to add and subtract. He throws the cutter. He mixes the fastball, he takes something off the fastball. He mixes in the breaking ball. He’s got a feel to pitch.”

Joey Ortiz started the third with a leadoff triple to right-center and scored on Brice Turang’s groundout to first to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead.

The Pirates had runners on first and third in the bottom of the third inning after Isiah Kiner-Falefa reached on Ortiz’s error at third and Oneil Cruz reached on a fielder’s choice. But Cruz was picked off at first by Civale with Andrew McCutchen at the plate to end the inning. Cruz had another baserunning gaffe in the eighth, running into a double play at second.

“He’s got to be more aware. It’s unacceptable,” Shelton said. “We know Cruzy’s immensely talented, but there’s times we’ve got to pay more attention on the bases.”

The Brewers added to their lead in the fifth. Sal Frelick hit a leadoff double, advanced to third on a sacrifice by Ortiz and scored on an Eric Haase double to make it 2-0. Turang singled to center, driving in Haase for a 3-0 Brewers lead.

Lefty Ryan Borucki replaced Keller for the sixth only to give up back-to-back doubles to pinch hitter Rhys Hoskins and Blake Perkins as the Brewers made it 4-0. After Perkins advanced to third on Frelick’s sacrifice, the Pirates turned to righty Colin Holderman. But Ortiz hit a fly ball to shallow left that dropped for a double when Liover Peguero couldn’t make an over-the-shoulder catch, scoring Perkins for a 5-0 lead.

The Pirates took advantage when Nick Mears replaced Civale for the seventh. Nick Gonzales drew a leadoff walk — his second of the game, marking the first multi-walk game of his career — and Bryan De La Cruz belted a 1-2 fastball to right field for his 21st home run to cut it to 5-2.

Gonzales hit a one-out double off Devin Williams in the ninth, but the Brewers closer struck out De La Cruz and got Jared Triolo to fly out to the warning track in center to end the game.

For Keller, who signed a five-year contract extension worth $77 million through 2028, figuring out how to have a better second half next year will be a focus of his offseason.

“It’s tough right now to name one thing on it, but definitely just go back and review after the season,” Keller said. “After this year, I like going back and watching my starts, kind of in a condensed form, just to see if there’s anything alarming that popped out to me from one start to the next or over month-to-month. Definitely just a lot of things to keep growing on and maybe picking other people’s brains, other starters around the league just to see how they put a full season together.”