First Call: Keeanu Benton loses weight; Cory Trice feels good to go for training camp
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Friday’s “First Call” has some encouraging Pittsburgh Steelers tidbits on a pair of last year’s rookies as minicamp wraps up. The Pirates head out to Colorado for a weekend series. And a former Pirates relief pitcher who has had a lot of success in 2024 stumbled on Thursday.
Benton’s body
Steelers defensive lineman Keeanu Benton had a solid first-year as a rookie. Now he is looking to build upon that in his sophomore campaign. One way in which the Wisconsin product is trying to do so is to get lean.
“I lost about 10 pounds,” Benton said via Steelers.com. “But I figured out how to get some more body muscle rather than putting that on in fat. (The NFL) is a lot different training than college. So it was good that I had that time off to focus on my body. … Just getting to know my body better and kind of preparing it for this year was probably my biggest takeaway.”
Regarding where things can go from here in Pittsburgh, Benton had a bold proclamation. He was asked where the ceiling is for him as an individual player.
“I can’t see it. It’s up there somewhere. I’m not really looking for that,” Benton said.
The defensive tackle’s rookie season ended with 36 tackles, two forced fumbles and a sack.
Trice feeling nice
Steelers defensive back Cory Trice is hoping to be a full participant at training camp next month.
The second-year product out of Purdue was an intriguing seventh-round pick in 2023, with tons of athletic ability, but an injury history. Sure enough, the 6-foot-3 corner hurt his knee early in drills at Saint Vincent College. But now he is looking for a comeback.
“I’m going to be ready to go for training camp,” Trice told me Thursday. “Everything is feeling good. I’ve just got to get used to (training) again and continue to keep doing this again so my body can learn how to react to it again.”
Steelers defensive backs coach Grady Brown admits that he may be holding Trice back a little bit more than he needs to at this point.
“He probably could do more,” Brown said Wednesday. “But I’m cautiously optimistic and cautious in my approach with his reps. I think he could do more. But he’s in a good place. He’s had a knee injury before. And if you ask him, I would imagine he would say he is in a good place right now. So, we just need to get him to Latrobe and (go) from there.”
Joey Porter Jr. and Donte Jackson are slated as the starting cornerbacks outside. After them, there are a lot of reps to be won. If Trice is healthy, it’ll be interesting to see how many fall to him.
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Rocky Mountain low
The Pirates dropped a three-game series to the St. Louis Cardinals after losing the rubber game of their three-game set on Thursday, 4-3.
Starter Mitch Keller wasn’t his best. He had been fabulous six starts in a row. But in this contest he gave up four runs in six innings thanks, in part, to a pair of homers from Paul Goldschmidt and Brendan Donovan.
But it’s hard for me to focus too much on the pitching when the Pirates rolled out a lineup that featured the bottom five hitters with batting averages at or under .215.
They’ll try to bounce back against a Colorado Rockies club this weekend that has been struggling mightily all year. The Rocks are 24-44. Only the Florida Marlins have a worse record in the National League at 23-45.
Much like the Pirates, the Rockies have lost three of their last four against the Cardinals and Twins. Their most recent game Wednesday was a glorified softball game with the Twins winning 17-9. The game featured 36 hits and lasted three hours and eight minutes.
Via the Associated Press, the Rockies have lost nine of their past 12 games, with a 9.17 ERA for the bullpen over the last 10. Meanwhile, the Pirates only plated seven runs in the three game series against the Cardinals.
Tough Day for Clay
Clay Holmes had a bad outing for the New York Yankees on Thursday.
The former Pirate took the mound with a 3-2 lead over the Kansas City Royals, and 19 saves under his belt. But K.C.ended up walking off with a 4-3 win courtesy of Maikel Garcia’s two-run double in the bottom of the ninth.
MAIKEL GARCIA WALKS IT OFF FOR THE ROYALS!!!! pic.twitter.com/YBMiiXWET8
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) June 13, 2024
Holmes allowed three hits in the inning. The Yankees still have a 2½ game lead in the American League East. The Royals are five back of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.
That was Holmes’ fourth blown save of the year for the Yankees.