Jonathan Stiever dominates in a Knights shutout victory

Jonathan Stiever took a huge step forward in Saturday’s 4-0 win. The righty threw a season-high six innings, showing off an improving breaking pitch and a more aggressive attitude.  

Saturday’s shutout extended the pitching staff’s streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 21 against the league-leading Nashville Sounds.  Equally impressive, Stiever and three relievers — Alex McRae, Jace Fry and Zack Burdi — issued no bases on balls.

Stiever, the FutureSox No. 6 prospect, was efficient, throwing 59 strikes in 88 total pitches. Even as he tired in the 6th and his control began to wane, he still hit 96 on his fastball. 

Stiever had just four strikeouts, but was confident enough to pitch to soft contact for the first time this season, which the coaching staff had been urging the entire staff to do. 

“Stiever struggled his last two starts,” manager Wes Helms said, “but he made the adjustments. He was a beast for us tonight. He gave us the innings we needed. He attacked the zone. That’s what we ask of our pitchers. Go after them. If they beat you with the bat, they beat you. He made his pitches tonight.”

Stiever has been working on commanding his breaking pitches a lot lately with pitching coach Matt Zaleski. 

“You could see on his release point that he was spiking some breaking pitches and still not comfortable with them,” Helms said, “but overall he used his fastball to attack the zone and used his breaking ball in all in the counts he needed to, to get to either soft contact or the strikeout. That’s huge when you can locate your secondary pitches like that.”

Just coincidentally, about three hours before tonight’s game, I caught up with Zaleski and asked him about Stiever.  Unaware of the dramatic turnaround that was about to take place, Zaleski talked about the work that Stiever and he had been doing of late.

“He’s been having a bit of a tough time with the off-speed stuff and finding it in the zone,” Zaleski explained.  “The movement’s there.  We’ve been working on getting him to throw it aggressively in the zone and get outs that way.”

Helms pointed out that we are at the point in the season when the starters are going to improve with each outing. 

“The first month was a learning curve for them,” he said.  “Now they are making the adjustments they need to make. Every start they are going to get better and you are starting to see that now.”

With 21 straight scoreless innings on the line, Jimmy Lambert takes the ball Sunday afternoon for the series finale. It is his first appearance since his spot start in Chicago earlier this week.

The Offense

Not much to see here. 

The Knights could only muster four hits, which was one less than the Sounds.  However, they were big hits, including a solo shot by Tim Beckham, a two-run blast by Luis Gonzalez and an RBI single from Jake Burger.  The offense has been quiet in the past few games, but for the first time this year, the pitching staff picked it up.

The Defense

It was a tough night defensively at shortstop for Tim Beckham.  With one out in the fifth, the MLB veteran bobbled a hard grounder for an error.  Then, on the next batter, Beckham fielded a ground ball within a few feet of second base for what should have been an easy inning-ending double play.  But he hesitated, and then flipped the ball to second baseman Marco Hernandez, who was surprised by Beckham and dropped the ball.  But Stiever induced a pop-up and a strikeout to get out of the jam.

It was a good night for Jake Burger, who made two nice plays on balls hit into the hole.  Brian Goodwin also had a web gem in centerfield, going high up on the centerfield wall to take away extra bases in the first inning.

Mike Wright’s Take of Stiever and Lambert

I  caught up with Mike Wright before the game and talked to him about his seven-inning, two-hit masterpiece last night.  At one point, I asked him how it felt to be the team’s ace.  His answer was insightful, humble and honest: 

“I think there’s a difference between the ace and just a guy who’s hot right now. I feel like I’m hot, but we have a couple of young guys, Stiever and Lambert, who have bright futures ahead of them and are definitely future aces.”

It is easy to pull for a guy like Wright.

Photo credit: Sean Williams/FutureSox

Want to know right away when we publish a new article? Type your email address in the box on the right-side bar (or at the bottom on a mobile device) and click create subscription. Our list is completely spam free and you can opt out at any time. Also, consider supporting FutureSox on Patreon! You can get early access to special articles and Patreon-only posts, in addition to more benefits.

Shop our exclusive merchandise! Show your support with FutureSox apparel.