Jackson Kowar got ‘too cute’ early in Kansas City Royals’ loss to Orioles
Progress isn’t always steady, and first innings aren’t always pretty. Kansas City Royals rookie pitcher Jackson Kowar followed up last week’s solid return-to-the-majors outing with a much rockier start on Tuesday night.
While the Baltimore Orioles capitalized on Kowar’s mistakes almost immediately, he once again walked off the mound after six innings instead of forcing his manager to mercifully take the ball from him in the middle of an inning.
Kowar, who made his fourth major-league start, gave up six runs on five hits and four walks. Two of the hits were home runs, which accounted for four of the runs he allowed in a 7-3 loss to the Orioles.
“I was happy with the way I was able to grind through it and get through six,” Kowar said. “I was pleased with that. At the end of the day, it’s always going to be frustrating when you give your guys a four-run deficit to start the game. I was frustrated I wasn’t able to start strong, but I was happy to get through six and at least give us a chance there at the end.”
He also struck out a career-high seven and threw a career-high 105 pitches.
“He did a really good job of staying in the game by pitching a very uncharacteristic game for him,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “He used his slider, I’m sure, more than he has ever used it in his life. It was probably his best pitch today. They got to the point where they had to figure out different ways to get guys out. They were sitting on the changeup, he couldn’t execute the fastball like he wanted to.”
Kowar threw his slider, a pitch he started developing after he was sent back down to Triple-A in June, 25% of the time on Tuesday night. He threw it slightly more often than he threw his changeup, his best pitch.
He put himself in a tough situation right out of the gate by walking the first two batters on 3-2 changeups, and later described that approach as “a little too cute.”
The next batter, Anthony Santander, hit an RBI single up the middle.
“He was trying to make perfect pitches to the first two hitters,” Matheny said. “Then you walk the first two guys of the game and you’re going to find yourself in a little bit of a mess. I think he lost some of the confidence in his fastball, and his fastball is too good to not keep trying to grind through it.”
After an RBI groundout made the score 2-0, Kowar struck out Pedro Severino to get within one out of ending the inning. Instead, DJ Stewart hit a 1-1 changeup to center field for a two-run home run.
Royals center fielder Michael A. Taylor appeared to lose his place in relation to the wall, and Taylor hit the wall before he could time a jump to potentially steal a homer with his glove.
One inning into the game, the Orioles lead 4-0. Their four runs came on just two hits.
“The two free passes, those will kill you,” Kowar said. “The two-run homer, you can live with if it’s just the two runs. But the two free passes to give them four in the first hurts and really set us behind the 8 ball.”
After the Royals scored their first run in the top of the third, Kowar gave up a single and a two-run home run to Austin Hays on a 1-1 slider that stayed up to start the bottom of the inning.
Kowar struck out the next three batters to end the inning, and he retired 10 of 11 after the third-inning home run.
“It’s just little stuff like a little bit finer command, keeping my changeup down in the zone, some strike-to-ball changeups,” Kowar said of the difference after the second homer. “I thought my changeup was up and the off-speed was up just a little bit early. I was able to throw some quality off-speed and be a little more aggressive with my fastball and let my defense work.”
