The Pittsburgh Pirates went into the 2023 season expected to finish near the bottom of the NL Central. Well, we’re in June now, and they’re sitting atop the division in a virtual tie with the Brewers.
Mitch Keller has been a huge reason why. When Keller is at his best, he has truly one of the filthiest pitches in baseball. And on Sunday, he unleashed that sweeper on the Mets’ Brandon Nimmo.
Pitching in a scoreless game in the third inning, Keller got Nimmo to strike out swinging on an 83 mph sweeper that broke 26 inches, according to Statcast (even more than the tweet’s 24 inches).
Mitch Keller, RIDICULOUS 83mph Sweeper. 😳
24 inches (yes, 2 feet) of horizontal break. pic.twitter.com/wWsgIkpvwu
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 11, 2023
I’m not sure what Nimmo was supposed to do with that pitch. It appeared to be heading towards the outside part of the plate before breaking sharply off the plate and inside near the feet.
With a two-strike count, that’s an incredibly difficult pitch to lay off. And Nimmo likely didn’t expect that kind of movement. After all, it’s not every game you see a pitch break 26 inches horizontally. Keller basically turned that baseball into a frisbee and stunned MLB fans in the process.
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