CHICAGO -- It didn¡¯t look like it was going to be Jack Kochanowicz¡¯s day.
Every batted ball against him in the first inning was hit hard, including a leadoff homer from Nick Maton. The White Sox hit five balls in play harder than 100 mph en route to a two-run first frame and it appeared Kochanowicz was on the ropes. But just like that, he snapped out of it and faced the minimum over the next five frames to get through six strong innings in a 3-2 win over Chicago in the series finale at Rate Field.
Just like Jos¨¦ Soriano on Saturday, Kochanowicz was incredibly efficient, needing just 64 pitches to record 18 outs before the Angels turned to Ryan Zeferjahn in the seventh. Zeferjahn, though, saw his outing cut short due to a hailstorm that caused the grounds crew to have trouble putting the tarp over the field. It led to a two-hour, 48-minute delay and Kochanowicz received a no-decision.
¡°I think they just had a good approach early attacking my sinker,¡± Kochanowicz said. ¡°I don¡¯t think it was my best stuff at the start. But once I started using my four-seam, I was able to get them off the sinker.¡±
Despite the difficult first inning, it was still an encouraging start for Kochanowicz, who is looking to build on his strong rookie campaign last year. And a good sign for the Angels, who opened the year with three consecutive quality starts from Yusei Kikuchi, Soriano and Kochanowicz. It marked the first time the club accomplished the feat since 2011, when Jered Weaver, Dan Haren and Ervin Santana all opened with quality starts.
After that tough opening frame, Kochanowicz looked much like he did down the stretch last year when he had a 2.78 ERA over his final nine outings. He averaged more than six innings per outing over that stretch because of his ability to generate quick outs with his sinker, much like Soriano.
Kochanowicz again relied heavily on his sinker, throwing it 27 times and seeing it average 95.2 mph. But this year he's working to incorporate his four-seamer more to change the eye level of hitters hunting his sinker. He threw it 26 times, which was 41 percent of his pitches on Sunday. That was a much higher percentage than last year, when he threw the four-seamer just 6.1 percent of the time.
¡°It was an adjustment,¡± Kochanowicz said. ¡°It makes my sinker better. I just have to trust my stuff.¡±
He registered eight swings and misses with the four-seamer, which helped him record four strikeouts. The only baserunner he allowed to reach after the first was in the fifth, when Brooks Baldwin led off with a single. But he was quickly erased when Jacob Amaya lined into a double play.
Kochanowicz only needed 10 pitches to get through a 1-2-3 sixth, but the Angels decided to go to the bullpen in the seventh despite Kochanowicz¡¯s low pitch count and brought in Zeferjahn.
While Kochanowicz left the outing without a decision, the Angels made sure to leave Chicago with a series victory. Once play finally resumed, Kyren Paris led off the top of the eighth by slugging a first-pitch four-seamer 107 mph over the wall in left field for a go-ahead solo homer. That was all the scoring the Halos needed, as Kenley Jansen came on in the ninth to secure his second straight save.
¡°[Kochanowicz] didn¡¯t have his best stuff, but he got us six innings,¡± manager Ron Washington said. ¡°He gave up the two in the first and then gave us five zeros. And at that point he didn¡¯t have a whole lot of pitches, but I just thought that he had fought hard enough right there. And we had some pieces in the bullpen that needed to pitch and that I knew they could come in and get outs, and they came in and did it.¡±