Dallas Keuchel: A Pitching Oddity

Dallas Keuchel has made a living being an outlier in Major League Baseball.

He came into Sunday afternoon’s Twins-Pirates game with many people seeing his third start with the Twins as a make-or-break moment for the continuation of his career. That’s because his previous start against the Philadelphia Phillies on August 11 was anything but glamorous. 

The defending National League champions made Keuchel live up to every doubt fans and baseball beat writers alike had when the Twins offered him a minor-league deal in late June. He threw 49 pitches and could only get five outs. Between those five outs, the Phillies tagged on six hits, and two walks, and six of those eight base runners scored. 

Not a single one of those 49 pitches against the Phillies topped 88 miles per hour. And in an age where the heat on pitches banks the success of many pitchers in MLB, people believed Keuchel's start against the Pirates could be his very last. 

But then a few things happened during Sunday’s game people weren’t expecting. Keuchel got his first strikeout of the season with Pirates catcher Endy Rodriguez staring down an 84.9 MPH cutter on the outside corner to end the second inning. 

At that point, Keuchel faced the minimum number of hitters: six up, six down, a strong rebound from his previous two innings before Sunday’s game. But the real excitement of his performance was still to come.  

Chris Langin was at home in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Sunday with time set aside from his job as the Director of Pitching for Driveline. Langin worked with Keuchel from last December until June of this year to help get him opportunities in the majors like he had on Sunday; bringing a perfect game into the seventh inning. 

“It was one of the more enjoyable things I’ve watched in my almost four years here at Driveline,” said Langin. “You look at everything leading up to that moment and it’s encouraging. Especially when you account for the context of how the last game went for him.”

Langin’s time with Keuchel over the six months he was at Driveline makes him more familiar than anybody with what the lefty can do on the mound. He’s kept up with Keuchel on a daily basis over the phone, and they continue to break down how his starts turn out. 

The start against the Phillies had left its mark on both of them from all that progress that had been made for Keuchel leading up to it. The results of that game weighed on Keuchel leading into Sunday’s game according to Langin. 

“You talk about a lot just hitting you at once after all that time. It’s pretty easy to think about those things a bit, feeling like you may have wasted time. Considering how he turned it around Sunday from the last game was pretty cool,” said Langin. 

Breaking down Sunday’s start, Langin said there was a noticeable difference from Keuchel’s previous two starts. He was throwing fewer strikes that attacked hitters in the strike zone to start out at-bats and increasing the number of pitches he wanted to get the Pirates hitters to chase. 

“He sometimes over-relies on his command too earlier in the count. For Dallas, I think, he sometimes doesn’t have to be as assertive as he thinks on the first pitch. It’s a lot more difficult to get two strikes in a count than one these days and that ability to hit a corner is just more important when it’s required to get more with strike two than one with guys' swing rates these days.”

As Keuchel set a new Twins record for the most amount of hitters faced before recording a single strikeout at 42. Langin saw it as another fun thing that adds to the outlier narrative Keuchel has constructed for himself.

“I was sending him funny texts before the game Sunday on the strikeout thing, giving him **** about it.  I basically told him ‘The only thing you can optimize for is striking out one batter.’ That was the game plan.” 

Keuchel achieved that one strikeout, then two more, before his day came to an end after Pirates left fielder Bryan Reynolds hit a double off the right-center field wall. 19 up and 19 down to that point. He walked off the mound with no runs surrendered going into the seventh for the first time since June 15, 2021. 

As the Twins continue their push to clinch the American League Central for the 2023 postseason. Langin isn’t hyper focused as Twins fans are when it comes to the lineups his friend will be facing down the stretch. Or if he’ll hold out to be a part of a six-man rotation once Joe Ryan returns from his rehab assignment. 

He’s proud of what Keuchel has accomplished in his comeback to this point and just wants to enjoy the ride he’ll be on, even if it is Keuchel’s last trip in the majors. 

“I don’t think he’s got anything really think too deeply on. He’s done a lot in this game. He’s made a hell of an effort to continue playing when he doesn’t necessarily have to. He’s such a unique pitcher in how he approaches the game, I think he’s earned the right to say ‘Who really gives a ****’ in terms of who he’s facing.” 

Keuchel’s next start is likely to come on Saturday against the Texas Rangers, the team with the second-highest OPS in the majors at .797. A team all but set for the postseason, whether it’s the AL West title or a Wild Card spot, they’ll prove to be another test to Keuchel’s remaining longevity in the big leagues.

Until then, he can finally give Langin smack talk back about the strikeouts he’s recorded and work on his best approach against an all-star lineup.