Ian Kennedy’s made a bunch of starts in AAA since returning from his injury, and here’s how they’ve gone:
July 3rd – 2IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 0K, 1HR (48 pitches, 27 strikes) (This game was suspended after two innings)
July 8th – 4IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 4K, 0HR (84, 50 strikes)
July 13th – 5IP, 6H, 4R, 4ER, 3BB, 6K, 1HR, 2HBP (92, 61 strikes)
July 19th – 7IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 2K, 0HR (89 pitches, 56 strikes)
July 24th – 7IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, 7K, 0HR (92 pitches, 62 strikes)
There’s a few things going on here that are good to see. His July 8th and 13th starts are both not great, but he then put up two very strong outings July 19th and 24th. In fact, he had a perfect game until 2 outs in the 7th inning when his defense failed and made a bunch of errors. The hit game immediately following an error. The game was cut short because of rain, but he probably would not have been out for the 8th anyway.
The great majority of his strikeouts have been swing and miss which is good, and his GO/AO ratio has been getting better. I hope he’s built up his confidence enough to be better than Sidney Ponson because I am pretty sure he’ll be joining the MLB team again soon. I don’t really think this is the right thing to do–he would probably be better served spending the rest of the year in AAA, especially since he’s had only one zero walk outing–but it seems inevitable.
