In an era of hard and harder throwers, Keuchel, a left-hander with a House of David beard, is a throwback of another sort — a pitcher who cuts, fades and darts the ball in and out, living on the edges of the plate and rarely in the center of it. His fastball is a misnomer, barely eclipsing 90 miles per hour, but when it arrives it is accompanied by late, darting movement.
“He just lives on the corner,” Judge said. “He doesn’t miss his spot. If you go throughout the whole game, there wasn’t too many pitches over the heart of the plate and he just likes to live on the edges.”
And no matter whom the Yankees put in their lineup — only three hitters remained from the Yankees’ wild-card defeat two years ago — Keuchel baffles them.
On Friday night, rarely using his devastating changeup, he allowed four hits and one walk, and struck out a season-high 10 batters.
Credit
Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press..
“He’s got so many plans out there,” said Correa, the Astros’ shortstop….
