Friday was not the return Michael Kopech had in thoughts.
The Chicago White Sox reinstated the right-hander from the injured record forward of Friday’s sport towards the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park.
He began, but it surely was a brief and wild outing.
Kopech allowed 4 runs in two-thirds of an inning in a 9-0 loss to the Braves in entrance of 42,782.
“Physically I feel good,” Kopech stated. “Obviously I needed to go on the market and take what I felt bodily and have some outcomes with it. But if there’s a optimistic takeaway for me, I felt bodily good. Just erratic. Tough option to come again.
“I had a chance to throw every day of the break. Felt good. Even playing catch today, getting ready for the game, felt really good. Just didn’t take the feeling and execute with it.”
The 4 runs got here on a Matt Olson grand slam.
The Sox returned from the break with a thud, falling behind rapidly and by no means recovering. Losers of eight of their final 10, the Sox are a season-high 17 video games beneath .500 at 38-55.
“Didn’t start off too good,” supervisor Pedro Grifol stated. “Kopech was obviously rusty. He felt good. He felt strong. But he was rusty. He had a tough time finding his command. Some good pitches. Other than that, got himself in trouble with the walks, gave up the home run. Just ended up throwing too many pitches in that inning.”
Kopech threw 38 pitches — 14 strikes. He allowed one hit, which was the slam, walked 4 batters and hit one.
The backside of the primary began with Kopech strolling Ronald Acuña Jr. Kopech hit Ozzie Albies and walked Austin Riley. That loaded the bases for Olson, who hit a 1-0 fastball over the right-center wall for the grand slam.
Kopech retired the following two earlier than strolling Orlando Arcia. That was his final batter as Touki Toussaint entered in reduction.
“This game is a game where you have to be able to go out there and be consistent and take what you do from one to the next,” Kopech stated. “I wasn’t even capable of take one pitch to the following at the moment. Put us in a gap.
“Obviously we wanted to come back after the break and set a tone. Change the pace a little bit. I wasn’t able to do that. Touki came in and picked me up, did a hell of a job (one run in 5 1/3 innings). I hate that I have to keep getting picked up this season, come in and cover five innings like that. It’s impressive.”
Friday marked the shortest begin of the season for Kopech (3-8), who hasn’t pitched 5 innings since June 10 towards the Miami Marlins. He lasted 4 1/3 on June 16 at Seattle, 4 innings on June 21 towards the Texas Rangers and four-plus on June 27 on the Los Angeles Angels.
The Sox positioned Kopech on the IL on June 29 with proper shoulder irritation.
“He threw his bullpens, he was ready to pitch, he just couldn’t find his command,” Grifol stated. “He felt good, which is an effective signal for us. He felt good. He was robust. Just about fine-tuning his mechanics and getting again to work with (pitching coach) Ethan (Katz).
“The first couple (of starts during this stretch) he was a little sore prior to this. Today he felt strong. Ethan and (bullpen coach) Curt (Hasler) will get back to the drawing board, look at the video and look at all that stuff, talk to him. They’ll have their session tomorrow, debrief a little bit and see where they’re at. It could be mechanical, but they’ll take care of that somehow, someway. Prior to him going on the IL, he was a little sore. But today he felt good. I haven’t heard anything otherwise, which is good news.”
Kopech is aware of a key’s “finding my groove again.”
“Not that I’ve lost confidence in what I’m able to do, but right now the results aren’t there,” Kopech stated. “Once I get back in the groove, I’m sure the results will show up. I’m in a little bit of a rut.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com