The Los Angeles Angels are hoping Yusei Kikuchi can duplicate the results of his last start against the Royals.
The Los Angeles Angels have been riding the early-season roller coaster with starter Yusei Kikuchi so far, but the left-hander is hoping the adjustments he made that produced six scoreless innings in his last start will play against the Kansas City Royals when he takes the mound tonight.
Kikuchi struggled mightily in his first four starts, to the point where he looked lost at times. It’s understandable given that he’s pitching for a new manager under the guidance of a new pitching coach, so the veteran Angels hurler went back to the basics.
"I went over my mechanics this week and I think that brought me good results," Kikuchi said through interpreter Koki Goto in a piece written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. "Going into this season, I raised my arm angle to become a better pitcher, but for the first four games, it didn’t work out well, so I brought back last year’s form. I tried to recall the drills I did, and I think that brought me good results.”
Kikuchi was able to up his velocity, Bollinger added, with his four-seamer landing in the 96-98 mph range for most of his last start against the San Diego Padres. He threw the pitch almost 50 percent of the time, which was way up from his season average of 25 percent.
“Kikuchi was pretty amazing,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “He was throwing hard, he was using his fastball, attacking, and he threw some good curveballs in there. And some sliders and splits and mixed it up. But that’s kind of the Kikuchi that we’re used to seeing, that type of guy where he’s attacking with the fastball.”
The Angels starter also mixed in what Bollinger referred to as his “new” splitter to go with a cutter, curveball and slider against San Diego. The result was 12 swings-and-misses, and an outing where Kikuchi simply pitched instead of overthinking his mechanics.
“I feel like I was able to throw naturally without thinking about the mechanics, and my usage of fastballs came naturally,” Kikuchi said. “The four-seam was good, but I was also able to get swing-and-misses from the splitters, too, so I think that combination worked out well.”
His process is especially important to the Angels this year as they try to put together their early season rotation. Kikuchi’s been the most reliable member of the rotation for a while now, and the Halos have plenty of hurlers who have bee submitting up-and-down performances.
“Obviously he’s been grinding and trying to get back on track,” Suzuki said. “We felt like six innings, no runs, eight strikeouts was a good building block and it was a good night for him.”
The Angels managed to come back and win the final game of their series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday, and the win stopped a four-game losing streak. Building on that success is important, and the Halos are hoping Kikuchi is the right man to help them do it.