Los Angeles Angels rookie Jack Kochanowicz wins his first game in the major leagues, 6-4 over the Washington Nationals.
The Los Angeles Angels defeated the Washington Nationals 6-4 on Sunday thanks to a three-run double by Kevin Pillar and seven and a third innings thrown by Jack Kochanowicz, who earned his first big league win.
On their first trip to Washington since 2017, Los Angeles managed to win two of the series’ three games. They started the road trip in New York against the Yankees and finished with a 3-3 record.
The Nationals allowed 13 walks, which is a record since they relocated to Washington in 2005. The Nationals were prevented from winning their fourth series sweep of the year by the Angels, who scored four runs off those walks.
Matt Thaiss, a Los Angeles catcher who reached base five times (including three walks), stated, “A lot of good decisions, good choices.” In particular, a lot of people come out firing and make some early outs in an 11:30 a.m. game. The lads shown some grit today.
This month, Kochanowicz (1-2) made his third career start, and it went somewhat better than his two prior outings, in which he gave up 12 runs in seven innings.
On Saturday, the right-hander who was brought up from Double-A Rocket City struck out the first eight Nationals hitters before Nasim Nuñez reached base on an infield single.
After a double and a walk by the Nationals to begin the fourth inning, Angels manager Ron Washington went to the mound to give Kochanowicz a break and deliver a brief message.
Washington stated, “You don’t make adjustments in this business until you have to.” “You’re doing the right thing. Why would you decide to change your activities? Continue. When you need to modify, they will let you know. And he carried it out. Just his confidence truly struck me.
After pitching seven innings on 72 pitches, Kochanowicz was relieved in the eighth inning by Jacob Young, who launched a home run to left field. After a two-out RBI single by Luis García Jr., the youngster was removed from the game. He struck out two and gave up six hits, one walk, and two runs.
Kochanowicz remarked, “Every time out, I feel more comfortable.” “It’s the same stuff: becoming more at ease with the situation and having faith in myself.”
Ben Joyce allowed the Nationals to score twice in the ninth inning before putting an end to the comeback by getting Juan Yepez to smash into a game-ending double play with the bases loaded.
Jo Adell hit a sharp grounder to third baseman José Tena in the fourth inning with runners on first and third and no outs. Tena seemed to hurt his right hand.
The mistake caused Brandon Drury to score after he had stopped, and Tena was forced to leave the game one day after making his Nationals debut and hitting the game-winning hit in the tenth inning.
After walking a hitter, MacKenzie Gore (7-10) received a double-play ground ball, which let one run score. After walking two more hitters, Pillar doubled to left field for three runs, bringing the score to five.
When Michael Stefanic earned the final of the Angels’ four walks against Jordan Weems in the seventh inning, Los Angeles added another run.
In four innings, Gore allowed five runs, all of which were unearned. He gave up five singles and a career-high six walks to hitters. For the fourth time in his seven starts since July 6, the left-hander failed to finish games before the fourth inning.
Dave Martinez, the manager of the Nationals, stated, “He has to get ahead to stay ahead.” “He possesses good qualities. We must continue to emphasize it. On the mechanical front, he appeared OK to me today. The ball was emerging well. It was always 3-2, 3-2, 3-2, and then walking guys and foul, foul, foul.
In a 13-inning defeat to Milwaukee on August 10, 2008, Washington gave up 13 walks collectively as well.
