Frustrated Keuchel blames rough start on lousy command
HOUSTON - Dallas Keuchel, the reigning American League Cy Young award winner, is getting plenty of advice as he goes through his worst stretch since breaking into the majors in 2012.
Keuchel listens to all of it, but the scuffling Houston Astros left-hander knows what he must do.
''I've got to be better at commanding the baseball,'' he said.
Keuchel has followed up his 20-win season with a difficult start, dropping five straight decisions in his longest skid since losing seven in a row as a rookie in 2012, while his 5.92 ERA through 10 starts this year is nearly 3 1/2 runs higher than his 2.48 mark from 2015.
Early this season, his inability to throw strikes early in the count has led to an inordinate number of walks - he's walked 26 batters this season after issuing just 51 free passes a year ago - while his average fastball velocity has dipped from 89.6 mph last year to just 88.3 this season.
Manager A.J. Hinch said the easy answer for how to get Keuchel back on track is for him to throw more strikes on pitch one. That, Hinch believes, will come when he gets his mechanics back to normal.
''Getting his delivery lined up to getting down the hill in the same way every pitch,'' Hinch said. ''He's landing in a couple different spots. His body momentum's coming down the hill a little inconsistently, which changes his release point ever so slightly, and when that happens the command and control goes off.''
Keuchel said some of his bad starts in April may have come because he didn't feel good physically. He believes that stemmed from doing too much in between starts in the wake of pitching a career-high 232 innings last year, which ranked second in the majors.
''Instead of helping me get ready for the next start, it was kind of taking away from what I was going to do and in turn that's kind of messed me up a little bit,'' Keuchel said. ''So I backed off a little bit, worked a little bit smarter the last three weeks in between and my body has responded a lot better. My velocity is back up a little bit and my pitches are a lot more crisp.''
Keuchel has the highest ERA in a struggling rotation, and the Astros have followed up 2015's playoff trip by limping to a 17-28 record, the second-worst mark in the AL.
''The frustrating part about it is he's a good pitcher, and I don't think he's enjoying the kind of success that he deserves,'' Hinch said. ''I don't like looking up there and seeing our best guy struggle. Want to see him get a win, want to get us a win so we can get some momentum going and we can feel pretty good coming to the ballpark.''