Welcome to Box Score Banter, your daily dose of the previous day’s games, with a preview of what’s to come. All season stats mentioned are entering yesterday’s games.
The Groundball Master Returns to Form
Twins 2, Pirates 0
| IP | ER | H | BB | K | |
| Keuchel | 6.1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
Before yesterday, Dallas Keuchel had made two total starts in 2023, allowing at least six hits in each and ending up as the proud owner of a 9.45 ERA and 130 DRA-. In other words, having the standard, modern Dallas Keuchel season. After finally being picked up by a team in late June and getting his first major-league chance of the year in early August, Keuchel is not the same man that we’ve known in the past. He’s certainly not the dominant Keuchel of the mid to late 2010s, and definitely not the same player as he was in 2015 when he won the ever-coveted Cy Young award.
But in taking the mound for Sunday’s rubber match, Keuchel seemed determined to prove to be a spark plug for the scrappy Twins, and he more than achieved this. He returned to his legacy as the true groundball king, getting his first three outs via the soil and recording 10 in the whole game. He faced 20 batters, and got 19 outs. Meaning Keuchel got more than 50% of his outs in the game via the groundball.
Just because he felt like taking it up an extra notch, Keuchel recorded 19 outs in a row, carrying a perfect game bid into the seventh inning before Bryan Reynolds got to a sinker on the outside edge of the plate—Keuchel’s 85th pitch of the game—becoming the Pirates’ first baserunner with a double off the wall.
One of the craziest parts of Keuchel’s performance is the fact that his sinker failed to miss a single bat, but was responsible for nearly all of his groundouts. His spin rates were completely in line with his season average, but he relied more heavily on both his sinker and cutter, which both actually had 100% in-zone contact rates, but induced the majority of his outs.
Sunday’s version of Keuchel was reminiscent of his old form, where he beat the system with well-placed, soft-contact inducing balls low in the zone. (One way it wasn’t a callback: Of the 19 pitches he put beneath the zone, catcher Ryan Jeffers failed to frame a single one as a strike, and instead pulled one in the zone out for a called ball.) This type of talent is just a beauty to watch in action, and I am all for the 2023 Dallas Keuchel comeback that absolutely no one is expecting.
Other Notable Showings
Gold: Brandon Pfaadt (7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K)
Although the Padres may not be known for their potent offense this season, at least in terms of hanging numbers on the board, the rookie Pfaadt completely shut them down for seven innings on Friday. Since throwing a two-hitter across 7 IP against another NL West rival from San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, he had struggled heavily, or at least resumed a disappointing rookie season for the highly regarded prospect. The silver lining: After coughing up 14 homers in his first nine starts (nearly one every three innings), he’s held it inside the park for three straight games now..
Silver: Justin Turner (2-4, 1 R, 4 RBI, BB, HR)
Turner put the Red Sox on his back on Sunday, driving in four out of their six runs, including the go-ahead run in the ninth inning to secure a sweep over the free-falling Yankees. Turner has performed fantastically in high-leverage situations for Boston this year, slashing .368/.390/.632 with a .426 wOBA. That average is fifth-best in the majors among players with at least 40 plate appearances in high-leverage situations, his wRC+ is 11th-best, and wOBA is 12th best. So yeah, if Boston is looking for a big hit in a big situation, they better hope that it’s Turner at the plate.
Bronze: Luis Urias (1-4, 1 R, 3 RBI, HR)
Urias’ grand slam on Saturday off of the Cy Young conversation-leading Gerrit Cole was the first the pitcher had surrendered since 2017 and only the second in his whole nine-year career. It also happened to be the second grand slam of Urias’ career as well, the first of which he hit two days prior. He also happened to hit these grand slams on back-to-back pitches, becoming the first player to accomplish this feat since Jimmie Foxx in 1940.
What’s Next
Monday, August 21
Once again, we’ve been gifted with a slate of pretty god awful Monday matchups; I mean who the hell is Slade Cecconi? Here’s who you could watch (for entertainment value, if nothing else).
Giants (LHP Scott Alexander) @ Phillies (RHP Aaron Nola), 6:40 p.m. ET
Alexander has a spectacular mustache and respectable DRA-, so the Giants may be lucky enough to see a continuation of his opener magic. Nola has a less spectacular mustache—it’s really rather uneven, to be honest—but a DRA- 11 points better than Alexander’s, so I guess it all depends on whether you prefer to use statistics or facial hair prowess to determine the wealth of a pitcher.
Red Sox (LHP James Paxton) @ Astros (RHP Cristian Javier), 8:10 p.m. ET
Both relatively within the Wild Card race, this series should be important in determining how the whole AL playoff picture shakes out. Paxton has been pretty up-and-down since the All-Star break, so we might get an impressively vintage performance, or an absolute dud. That’s the fun of it all! Javier is also having his worst season to date, but the Astros always seem to come up with something, so tomorrow may be just an absolute crap shoot.
Rangers (RHP Jordan Montgomery) @ Diamondbacks (RHP Slade Cecconi), 9:40 p.m. ET
Make sure to tune in and watch the Rangers’ big deadline pitching acquisition take on the mystery man Cecconi! Oh wait, it’s just Jordan Montgomery—but I guess he could be good too.
Thank you for reading
This is a free article. If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing to Baseball Prospectus. Subscriptions support ongoing public baseball research and analysis in an increasingly proprietary environment.
Subscribe now