Keller tosses first shutout for Tampa

Brian Keller experimented with a few things on the mound Friday.
They seemed to work. 
The Yankees right-hander threw the first complete-game shutout of his career, allowing two hits and striking out nine, as Class A Advanced Tampa defeated Palm Beach, 1-0, in under two hours at George M. Steinbrenner Field. It was Keller's Minor League-leading fourth complete game of the year, but the first time the 23-year-old went nine innings to accomplish the feat. 

"I was working on some pitch sequencing in the game today, using different sequences in different spots," Keller said. "Whatever I can do to help the team is what I'm trying to do and usually that's going as deep into the ballgame as possible as a starter and keeping the runs to a minimum so that we have a good chance to win."
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Following a 1-2-3 first inning, Keller (2-2) used a double play to work around a pair of singles in the second. From there, the 2016 39th-round pick went on a roll. He recorded 16 straight outs until giving up a two-out walk to Chris Chinea in the seventh.
"I felt comfortable with all my pitches," Keller said. "I felt comfortable throwing for strikes and throwing them off the plate to get strikeouts. Sometimes you don't have your best stuff and you have to grind through it, and other times you just kind of go into cruise control and let what you practice on every day take over."
The walk didn't unravel the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee product from his rhythm as he retired the last seven hitters he faced, capped off by a strikeout of Shane Billings, to give Tampa a chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth. 
"It was really cool to get that last out," Keller added. "My catcher, Sharif Othman, and I were on the same page all game. We were executing what we wanted to do all night. It was a really good team effort today. The defense was doing a great job behind me, so that gave me confidence to throw stikes and let them go to work."
Othman smacked a walk-off double to give his teammate the first shutout of his pro career.

"It was awesome to see the run come across. Everybody did their job tonight and that's what got us the win," Keller added.
The 2016 39th-round pick started the year with Class A Charleston, where he went 6-5 and logged a 3.29 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP with 90 strikeouts over 82 innings. The Yankees bumped Keller up to Tampa on July 5, and the next day, he allowed five runs on eight hits in his Florida State League debut against Fort Myers. Since then, he has produced four straight quality starts for Tampa. 
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"It's been a bit of an adjustment, but I think I'm getting comfortable here. I'm having a lot of fun doing what I'm doing," noted Keller, who sports a 3.00 ERA and 0.97 WHIP in 33 innings with the Yankees. "That first outing, I thought went pretty well except for one inning where I let the game slip away from me. And since then, I've been able to avoid the big inning by pounding the zone to get outs."
Cardinals No. 15 prospectJordan Hicks scattered four hits and a walk while striking out six in five scoreless innings for Palm Beach.