CLEVELAND — Jack Kochanowicz continues to tease Angels fans with his potential and torture them with his inconsistency.
The 24-year-old right-hander did both during what turned out to be a rough outing in the Angels’ 4-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday afternoon.
After getting through the first two innings without allowing a run, Kochanowicz allowed four runs in the next 1 ⅔ innings. He saw his ERA climb to 5.34 through 12 starts, a figure that raises the question about his worthiness for a spot in a big league rotation.
“I give myself the leniency to say I’m young, but I feel like I’m just working through some feels,” Kochanowicz said. “Just sometimes the same feel you had the last outing, you try to trust that same thing and do it, and it’s not there. Just working on it.”
Anyone who wants to see the bright side — or to look through the lens of long-term development — can see flashes of brilliance though.
Four starts ago, Kochanowicz dominated the Dodgers in a victory at Dodger Stadium. Last week, a defensive mistake behind him and one bad pitch cost him four runs in one inning against the Yankees, but he retired 17 of 19 hitters he faced in the other six innings.
Kochanowicz induces groundouts at an elite level, using a heavy sinker. The problem is he doesn’t strike out many hitters, so more balls in play will find holes.
And this season, he’s also lost the control he showed last year. Kochanowicz walked 10 batters in 65 ⅓ innings last season. This year, he’s already walked 32 in 44 innings.
The walks, he said, are a side effect of Kochanowicz trying to widen his repertoire.
Kochanowicz threw his sinker 72% of the time, with just a sprinkling of the other pitches last season. Feeling the need to diversify as big league hitters got more looks at him, Kochanowicz has thrown the sinker 48% of the time this year.
“I’m definitely trying to do a lot more than I was last year with all my pitches,” Kochanowicz said. “Last year was pretty simple. Just creating one pitch, really was what I was worried about. Just trying to make myself better, trying to improve, to have more weapons. Sometimes those weapons aren’t as good.”
On Sunday, a leadoff walk to No. 8 hitter Gabriel Arias in the third inning was the first sign that things were going off the rails. Thanks to a double play, he escaped the inning with just one run scoring.
In the fourth, Kochanowicz gave up a leadoff homer to Guardians starter José Ramirez, who has hit five of his 11 homers against the Angels. After a Kyle Manzardo single, Kochanowicz struck out the next two.
He couldn’t get the third out, though.
Kochanowicz walked Josh Naylor and hit Arias, after getting ahead 1-and-2 to both. He then gave up a two-run single. After another walk, his day was done.
“He couldn’t get his put-away pitches going,” Manager Ron Washington said. “He had no secondary stuff today. All he had was his sinker, and then he started overthrowing it.”
Despite the problems, Washington said the Angels aren’t planning to pull the plug on Kochanowicz in the rotation.
“We’re not there with that kid yet,” Washington said. “We have no place else to go, so we’re gonna have to grow with him. Things he’s going through, we’re gonna have to go through with him until he figures it out.”
After Kochanowicz was pulled, the bullpen did an outstanding job keeping the Angels in the game, starting with Connor Brogdon escaping the bases-loaded jam in the fourth. Hunter Strickland and Brock Burke then worked two scoreless innings apiece, giving the Angels (26-32) a chance.
Zach Neto broke up Gavin Williams’ no-hitter with a single in the sixth. In the seventh, the Angels got a break. Logan O’Hoppe’s two-out grounder literally got through the glove of Arias, the shortstop, for an error. That opened the door for two runs, driven in by Luis Rengifo and pinch-hitter Mike Trout.
Yoán Moncada, who was not in the starting lineup because of a sore knee, then came up as a pinch-hitter, and he struck out. There was a delay in getting Moncada to the plate, so he was charged with a pitch-timer violation that started his at-bat with an 0-and-1 count.
Moncada, who was called out on strikes, said he didn’t realize that was the third strike.
“After I pinch hit Mike, I wasn’t going to use Moncada, because I would have had to put him on defense,” Washington said. “But then, when Mike did what he did, and we had first and third, we had both of them ready, but when I called for Moncada, he couldn’t find his helmet. Sort of took up time. And he got banged for time. So he went up there already with one strike.”
The Angels didn’t get a runner in scoring position in the final two innings.