WASHINGTON — When a pitcher finally figures out how to pitch in the majors, it’s because he’s figured out that it’s actually not that different from pitching in the minors.
Jack Kochanowicz learned some hard lessons during his first two big league starts, when he gave up 12 runs, and he put it to use in his third try.
“Just go out and be comfortable,” Kochanowicz said. “Every time out I feel more comfortable. It’s the same stuff. Trust my stuff.”
Kochanowicz looked nothing like pitcher who got knocked around last month, carrying a shutout into the eighth inning of what became a 6-4 victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
The feel-good story of Kochanowicz was temporarily on hold over the final two innings, as the Angels blew most of a six-run lead before closer Ben Joyce ended a harrowing ninth inning by getting a double play with the bases loaded.
Not long after the Angels breathed that sigh of relief, Kochanowicz was getting doused in the clubhouse by his teammates in the traditional celebration of career victory No. 1.
“Fun is one word for it,” Kochanowicz said. “Cold is another.”
Kochanowicz finished with 7-2/3 innings, allowing two runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out two, throwing just 93 pitches to get 23 outs.
“The first couple times up here didn’t go as planned, but you kind of saw a glimpse of what he could be today,” catcher Matt Thaiss said. “He pounded the zone with the sinker. His off speed’s only going to continue to get better. He’s a lot more mature than a 23-year-old out there. And especially during certain points of that game today. What he was able to do was really impressive.”
Kochanowicz shot from Double-A to the majors last month. Although his first two starts didn’t go well, he got another opportunity because of the weather.
When the Angels’ game in New York was rained out on Tuesday, that created a hole in the rotation for Sunday. The Angels had been prepared to use starter Davis Daniel on three days rest — essentially making it a bullpen game.
Reliever José Marte came down with a viral infection, though, so the Angels put him on the injured list on Saturday. That allowed them to bring back Kochanowicz, who was a better alternative to start because he was fully rested.
Conveniently, this opportunity came just a couple hours away from Kochanowicz’s home in the Philadelphia area. He said he had lots of friends and family in the ballpark on Sunday.
They saw him zip through the Nationals without any trouble for the first three innings, allowing only an infield hit. In the fourth, just after the Angels had staked him to a five-run lead, Kochanowicz gave up a leadoff double and then a walk.
That’s when manager Ron Washington came to the mound to give Kochanowicz a pep talk, just as Nationals cleanup hitter James Wood was coming to the plate.
“I was just letting him know that we’ve got a 5-0 lead,” Washington said. “You don’t have to pitch to try to save this lead. What he’s been doing since he’s been out here has been working. Keep doing it. If they score runs, so what? We got five of them. And then he locked back in.”
Kochanowicz induced two straight grounders, the second of which the Angels converted for an inning-ending double play.
“He was a little funky motion, and then the sinker/fastball, whatever you want to call it, was moving a little more than I think we thought it was going to,” said Nationals center fielder Jacob Young. “He was throwing it well, almost effectively erratic, kind of all over the place. When he was in the zone, it was moving a lot. That fastball just kind of threw us off.”
Kochanowicz threw sinkers with 74% of his pitches.
“That’s definitely one of my strengths, for sure,” Kochanowicz said. “When that’s working how I want it to work, why shy away from it? Just trust it.”
He didn’t have any more issues until allowing a homer to Young in the eighth. Four batters later, he’d given up two more singles and a run. Right-hander Mike Baumann proceeded to walk the first two hitters he faced to load the bases. Baumann then got a flyout to escape with a 6-2 lead.
Joyce gave up a two runs in the ninth on three walks and two infield hits, finally getting out of it with a double play.
“That could have gone a different way,” Thaiss said. “The composure he held. … He didn’t blink out there the whole time. That just shows what kind of future he has in front of him as a closer. That’s a huge moment for him going forward the rest of his career.”
Fortunately for the Angels, they had some margin for error, thanks to an offense built mostly on a season-high 13 walks. Four of them came around to score.
Three were in the fifth inning, when the Angels got a run on an error, a double play and Kevin Pillar’s three-run double.
In the seventh, the entire offense consisted of four walks, including Michael Stefanic’s with the bases loaded.
“We did a good job of not being too aggressive,” Washington said, “and making them throw the ball over the plate.”
