Jackson Kowar can’t make it through the first inning of his Kansas City Royals debut
Kansas City Royals right-hander and highly regarded prospect Jackson Kowar didn’t make it through the first inning of his MLB debut on Monday night against the Los Angeles Angels.
Kowar, 24, gave up four runs, three hits (all singles) and two walks in 2/3 of an inning Monday night at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. He gave way to veteran right-hander Ervin Santana after having thrown 39 pitches to record two outs.
Kowar took the loss in his first start as the Royals fell 8-3.
“I’m guessing if we let him go longer, he’s going to be standing out there later in the game,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “He was making pretty good pitches, close misses. They fought off some pitches that I didn’t think that they would. He didn’t have the command with his fastball. That put him in spots where he just wasn’t able to pitch like he normally would.”
The high pitch count forced Matheny’s hand. The higher the pitch count, particularly with pitches thrown in high-stress situations, the level of concern about potential injury rises.
Monday night, Kowar faced seven batters. After a ground ball to first base retired the first batter, the next four reached and scored.
“I’m excited to watch him get back out there,” Matheny said. “I’d have loved to have been able to push him a little farther. It’s not that his stuff wasn’t there or he was getting beat up too much. It’s just that his count got him to the point where we had to protect him.
“I hated to take him out right there. Hated it because he was throwing fine. I’d have loved to be able to give him some more time, but I’m not going to put him in a spot where we could potentially put him in harm.”
Kowar, who found out late Friday night that he’d make his debut, met the team in Kansas City on Sunday and traveled with them to Anaheim after the Royals’ game on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium.
“It’s definitely been awesome,” Kowar said of the whirlwind few days. “I was able to get my family out, let them know. That was a really fun experience to have them be a part of this.
“Obviously, I’m frustrated with the way it went out there today, but I think when I hopefully look back in the future it will be a good story to tell. I’m just happy they were able to come out. It happened fast. I tried to soak in as much as I could.”
Kowar allowed more runs in that outing than he had in six starts over 31 2/3 innings for Triple-A Omaha this season.
Through six starts this season, Kowar went 5-0 with a 0.85 ERA with 0.88 WHIP, 11.65 strikeouts per 9 innings, a .165 batting average against, 41 strikeouts and 10 walks.
Minor League Baseball named Kowar the Triple-A East Pitcher of the Month last Wednesday.
After he retired the first batter on two pitches, Kowar walked Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch spiked short of home plate. Anthony Rendon followed with an RBI single. Jared Walsh walked, which prompted a mound visit by Royals pitching coach Cal Eldred.
Walsh scored one batter later on Max Stassi’s RBI single. By that time Santana was warming up in the bullpen.
José Iglesias followed with an RBI groundout to second base. Then Juan Lagares’ RBI single to right field marked the end of Kowar’s night.
“I would say that the first hitter or two, probably the Ohtani at-bat I was pretty juiced,” Kowar said. “But after that I’d say the heart rate came down a little bit and I was just trying to make pitches. It just came down to me not really executing.”
Kowar appeared to struggle with command of his pitches, leaving several up in the strike zone or over the heart of the plate as well as a trio of wild pitches. He became the first Royals pitcher to throw three wild pitches in one inning since Yordano Ventura on May 20, 2014.
“I was expecting to have a lot of juice just being in the game,” Kowar said. “I accounted for that, but it’s hard to prepare for that until you’re out there.”
Kowar came into this season ranked the Royals’ No. 4 prospect (third-best pitcher) by both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com as well as one of Baseball America’s top 100 overall prospects.
“I’m one of his biggest fans,” infielder/outfielder Hunter Dozier said. “I saw him in Triple-A when I was down there for my rehab assignment. When I came back, I was telling everyone, ‘Hey, this kid is the real deal. He needs to be up here.’
“It’s just one outing. He’s got electric stuff. He’s going to be good for us for a long time.”
This story was originally published June 7, 2021 at 9:48 PM.
