There was only one situation that gave Nick Kingham any trouble in his start Thursday night with Indianapolis – the stretch. Fortunately for Kingham, he did not face the situation until the sixth inning.
Not only was Kingham perfect through the first 5.2 innings, he was simply dominant against Columbus, who boasts the third best team OPS in the International League.
The final line for Kingham was six shutout innings, allowing only two hits and a walk, while striking out four. It was a nice rebound performance for Kingham, who allowed 10 hits and six earned runs on July 5.
The difference maker for Kingham is the changeup, which was geared in Thursday. Kingham was hitting from 91-93 on the fastball and 84-87 on the changeup and curveball. Of the off-speed pitches, a vast majority were that overpowering changeup. He told me a few weeks back that, despite the gap not being drastic, he banks on the off-speed pitches to throw batters off his fastball.
On Thursday, it was no different. Kingham used the fastball to set up the off-speed pitches later in the outing, particularly the second time through the order. In the first two innings, he threw 16 fastballs, compared to nine off-speed pitches in that span. In the first two innings, he started all six of the hitters with the heater. In the second inning, Kingham followed up by throwing a first pitch fastball to two of the three hitters.
Once the game got to the third inning, the spread was more balanced. In the fourth inning, which marked the second time through the order, the pitches were an even six fastballs and six off speed pitches. In the fourth, he started two of the three hitters off with a changeup. In the fifth, it was all three with the changeup.
The only trouble that Kingham ran into all night was in the sixth. This also marked the first time that he threw out of the stretch, as Kingham was four outs away from a seven-inning minor league double-header perfect game. After he allowed his first hit of the game with two outs, Kingham lost some of the pinpoint command that he had all night. With the runner on, he threw six balls and three strikes to the next two hitters. He fell behind both 2-0. Both of the hits that he allowed were on the fastball.
However, Kingham responded with the bases loaded to strike out Cleveland slugging prospect Jesus Aguilar with that change-up(video below).
Kingham also told me that he looks to the off-speed pitches as his put away pitches. That was also apparent on Thursday, as all four of his strikeouts were on off speed pitches – three changeups and a curveball in the dirt.
Outside of the tough outing on July 5, Kingham has been nearly perfect. He has allowed just one earned run in 32.2 innings. The strikeout to walk ratio is at 30:6. With this kind of success with Indianapolis, Kingham is making a serious case to get a look with the Pirates in September.
+ postsRyan has been following Indianapolis baseball for most of his life, and the Pirates since they became the affiliate in 2005. He began writing for Pirates Prospects in 2013, in a stint that ran through 2016 (with no service time manipulation played in). Ryan rejoined the team in 2022, covering Indianapolis once again. He has covered the Pirates in four different big league stadiums. Ryan was also fortunate enough to cover the 2015 Futures Game in Cincinnati.
” In the first two innings, he started all six of the leadoff hitters with the heater. ”
That’s a lotta leadoff batters for the first two innings! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Kingham has been very impressive of late. If he didn’t pitch for an awful Altoona team, his record would be much better.
Even before the injury to Taillon, I thought that Glasnow and Kingham were better prospects – given all of their respective performances in the system to date.