For all the talk of the rust that might’ve formed on Dallas Keuchel’s arm during his multi-month free agent odyssey he isn’t showing much of it. The newest Braves pitcher tossed seven scoreless innings in a minor league start last night.
Now, to be fair, it was an A-ball game in Rome, facing the Charleston River Dogs (he had been scheduled to pitch Saturday in Triple-A but the game was rained out). Still, those on the scene say he looked good as he struck out nine while allowing only one hit, walking one and throwing 55 of his 77 pitches for strikes.
Meanwhile, down in Atlanta, Kevin Gausman was pulled in the third inning despite being staked to a 5-1 lead. He had just given up a three-run homer and his manager was not gonna let him ride it out, even if the Braves offense was hot last night. Here’s Brian Snitker on why he yanked Gausman: “the last couple of outings haven’t been very good and it didn’t look like it was going anywhere good today.” So, uh, yeah, you don’t need to be a forensic scientist to figure out where this is all going.
Here’s Keuchel on his start: