Karinchak battling through first rough patch
The Indians never doubted how well James Karinchak’s heater or nasty curveball would play at the Major League level. The only concern was the 24-year-old’s reputation of battling command issues, but Karinchak had proven that wrong as he cruised through his first 15 appearances of the season. However, in his last two, the righty has hit his first bumps in the road.
It was inevitable that Karinchak would run into a clunker outing or two at some point during the season after he posted video-game like numbers through his first 16 2/3 innings. After blowing the Tribe’s lead on Saturday in St. Louis, Karinchak gave up the Indians’ lead again in the eighth inning on Monday, resulting in a 2-1 loss to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
“I just gotta go watch film and get better every day,” Karinchak said. “I can't keep doing this.”
Let’s not forget the hot start Karinchak had gotten off to. In his first 15 appearances, he pitched to a 0.54 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 16 2/3 frames, while holding opponents to an .096 average and .302 OPS. He walked six batters in that span, but he gave up just five hits.
“It's amazing,” Indians reliever Nick Wittgren said earlier this month of watching Karinchak. “That kid is straight Wild Thing. Watching him throw is just something special.”
In his 16th outing of the season on Saturday, Karinchak allowed the Cardinals to tie the game in the seventh inning. On Monday, his hiccup came in the eighth, when he gave up the tying run on an RBI single by Maikel Franco and was replaced with Adam Cimber. But Bubba Starling knocked in a run on a single that was charged to Karinchak, handing him his first outing of multiple runs permitted in his career.
“I'm just not executing,” Karinchak said. “Mechanics [are off]. My mechanics are my fault. No one else to blame but me.”
Karinchak may have found some more specific things in his mechanics to tweak over the next few days, but temporary Indians manager Sandy Alomar Jr. noticed that Karinchak’s tempo changed in the last two trips to the rubber.
“It seems like his tempo slowed down a bit the last two times,” Alomar said. “He's taking too long between pitches. I don't know if he's thinking too much. He needs to speed up his tempo. In those kind of situations, normally you let your eighth/ninth guy go out there. Sometimes we mix and match Wittgren with him, but he was the right guy in that situation.”
Karinchak has proven what kind of weapon he can be for the back of the Indians’ bullpen. He’s played a large role in the Tribe entering Monday with the third-lowest bullpen ERA (2.51) in the Majors. Although it’s the first time the Indians have suffered a loss after leading through seven innings this season, they’re not concerned that this will be something that continues to affect Karinchak in his next few trips to the rubber.
“Sometimes you have to let him go through it,” Alomar said. “Not every night is going to be perfect. It's a learning experience.”