Halos Today

Angels Rookie Affirms Trust in Himself After Rocky Debut

Maren Angus-Coombs

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
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The Los Angeles Angels brought up Jack Kochanowicz for his major league debut on Thursday. His dream of becoming a big leaguer quickly turned into a nightmare. He gave up four runs in the first inning of an 11-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners.

Kochanowicz made it through three innings and was charged with five runs. Despite the start going wrong, the 23-year-old still trusts himself.

“The baseball is not all that different,” Kochanowicz told reporters in Anaheim after the game. “The lights, the stadium obviously you notice, but once you settle in, it’s not too big of a difference at all. It’s just that first inning. … It’s not exactly what I wanted. But just continuing to trust myself is the main thing. Not letting it do too much in my head, but just trust myself.”

The fourth pitch of the game was sent into the left field corner for a ground-rule double off the bat of J.P. Crawford. It took 31 pitches for Kochanowicz to get out of the first inning.

“Welcome to the big leagues,” Angels manager Ron Washington said, recalling his conversation with Kochanowicz. “Got to make some adjustments. You should be proud of the fact that you stood out there and battled. And you just got to make the adjustments on getting the ball down. That’s about it. It wasn’t anything too serious.”

Washington also said he saw the stuff he wanted to see, but it was in the wrong location.

“He does have a lot of sink on his ball,” Washington said, “but in that first inning, it was sinking, but it was sinking over the plate instead of sinking down below the zone.”

Kochanowicz agreed, and thinks the solution is simple.

“As a sinkerball guy, my bread and butter is down in the zone,” Kochanowicz said. “It was a little too much up. All controllable stuff. So I’ll take it.”

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Maren Angus-Coombs

MAREN ANGUS-COOMBS

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