{"id":33144,"date":"2022-06-02T04:31:14","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T04:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/guardians-complete-3-game-sweep-of-kc-konnor-pilkington-strikes-out-8-in-4-0-win\/"},"modified":"2022-06-02T04:31:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T04:31:14","slug":"guardians-complete-3-game-sweep-of-kc-konnor-pilkington-strikes-out-8-in-4-0-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/guardians-complete-3-game-sweep-of-kc-konnor-pilkington-strikes-out-8-in-4-0-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardians complete 3-game sweep of KC; Konnor Pilkington strikes out 8 in 4-0 win"},"content":{"rendered":"
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Bright sunshine met the Guardians on the first day of June on Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field.<\/p>\n
After a stormy May, which included six postponements because of bad weather, it was a welcomed sight even if the grounds crew had the tarp unrolled awaiting a cloudburst that didn’t come until the final out of the game.<\/p>\n
Konnor Pilkington was just as pleasing to behold as the rookie left-hander struck out a career-high eight batters in five scoreless innings to help the Guardians beat the Royals, 4-0. The win completed a three-game sweep of Kansas City, which owns the worst record in the American League, but this is hardly the time for the Guardians to be quibbling over style points because they need every win they can get.<\/p>\n
It’s the G’s longest winning streak since they won three straight against Toronto and the White Sox from May 7 through May 9.<\/p>\n
PIlkington (1-0, 2.65) was making his third strart this season and second in place of injured Aaron Civale. In his first two starts, he didn’t allow a lot of runs, but he never got past the the fourth inning because he threw too many pitches and put too many runners on base.<\/p>\n
When Pilkington faced Detroit on Thursday at Comerica Park, the Tigers sent 21 batters to the plate in 3 1\/3 innings. Pilkington allowed only three runs, but ran his pitch count to 87 and was done for the night.<\/p>\n
Pilkington was much sharper Wednesday. He struck out the first four batters he faced, allowing three baserunners through the first three innings. The Royals, trailing 1-0, loaded the bases in the fourth on a leadoff walk by Salvador Perez and singles by MJ Melendez and Carlos Santana. Pilkington countered by striking out Emmanuel Rivera and retiring Nicky Lopez on a nice play by second baseman Andres Gimenez.<\/p>\n
Pitching coach Carl Willis visited Pilkington before he struck out Rivera.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went over the attack plan on how we wanted to pitch to Rivera,\u201d said Willis. \u201cThen I just reminded him, ‘Hey, you stuff plays in the zone. Don’t try to make perfect pitches. Trust your stuff in the zone. ‘ In Detroit he we saw that he was in a lot of fastball counts and he used his fastball di lui and they couldn’t catch up. “<\/p>\n
It was the same story for the Royals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve been working on this since my last outing,\u201d said Pilkington. \u201cWe had a plan going into the game and executed the plan. I went with the fastball and threw my changeup when I needed to and mixed in some sliders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fastball really worked well for me. I knew it in the bullpen before the game and I just brought it into the game. “<\/p>\n
Said catcher Luke Maile, \u201cI’m getting more and more impressed with his fastball. He’s thrown a lot of good hitters that fastball when he’s basically told them it’s coming. There has been very few times when they’ve put swings on it where they’ve been able to catch it out front.<\/p>\n
“This league is the highest level. Eventually guys will catch on and we’ll have to make some adjustments. Right now he has an ability that not a lot of people have. “<\/p>\n
Pilkington threw 60 four-seam fastballs out of his 91 pitches on Wednesday. The four-seamer maxed out at 95.6 mph, according to baseball savant, and averaged 93.3 mph. Pilkington’s average fastball has clocked in at 91.6 this season.<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the fourth Gimenez gave Pilkington a 2-0 lead with a with a two-out single that scored Owen Miller from second base. Gimenez came into the game hitting .405 (15-for-37) with runners on scoring position and .471 (8-for-17) with two outs and runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n
Pilkington retired three of the four Royals he faced in the fifth to end his best big-league peformance. Besides the eight strikeouts, Pilkington allowed two walks and five hits.<\/p>\n
Offensively the Guardians built a picket fence against Brad Keller (1-6, 4.15), a familiar foe who pitches well against them. That would be a picket fence by scoring one run per inning, which looks like a fence on the scoreboard. All four runs came with two out.<\/p>\n
It started in the third when Amed Rosario singled sharply to center field to score Richie Palacios for a 1-0 lead. Palacios reached on a single and Steven Kwan drew a two-out walk to get Rosario to the plate. Rosario, who had two hits in Tuesday’s 8-3 win, came into Wednesday’s game hitting .393 (11-for-28) against Kansas City this season.<\/p>\n
Jose Ramirez made it 3-0 in the fifth by scoring Luke Maile from third on a ground out to first for his MLB leading 52nd RBI of the season. Maile opened the inning with a walk, took second on Kwan’s single and third on Rosario’s fly ball to right.<\/p>\n
The Guardians made it 4-0 in the sixth on consecutive doubles by Gimenez and Palacios. Gimenez doubled to right and Palacios blooped a double into short left field. Keller, who allowed four runs on six hits in six innings, is 2-3 with a 2.15 ERA in his career against Cleveland.<\/p>\n
Pilkington, Eli Morgan, Bryan Shaw and Emmanuel Clase combined on the seven-hit shutout.<\/p>\n
Next:<\/b> The Guardians are off Thursday before opening a quick three-game series against the Orioles at Camden Yards. RHP Shane Bieber (2-3, 3.19) is scheduled to face the Orioles on Friday at 7:05 pm Baltimore has not announced a starter for the 7:05 pm game. Bally Sports Great Lakes, WTAM and WMMS will carry the game.<\/p>\n