There appears to be a simple explanation for Michael Kopech’s horrendous outing against the San Francisco Giants from last Monday.
The hard-throwing Kopech had a woeful 2023 season debut last week, allowing eight hits and seven earned runs in just 4.2 innings pitched. Kopech allowed five homers in the outing, with four of the dingers coming in the fifth inning.
After retiring the first batter in the top half of the fifth, Kopech proceeded to allow solo shots on four of his next five batters faced. The Giants cruised to an easy 12-3 victory over Kopech’s White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.
An interesting video breakdown from the popular sports YouTube channel, Jomboy Media, showed why Giants hitters had their way with Kopech: It appears as though the soon-to-be 27-year-old was tipping his pitches.
Baseball is largely a chess match between the pitcher and the batter. There are few greater advantages in any sport than being able to read the pitcher if you’re a batter, and Kopech was obviously reminded of this the hard way.
Kopech had a much better bounce-back outing against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday, however. The 6-foot-3, 10-pound righty allowed just one run and two hits in six innings of work, though the White Sox fell 1-0. Kopech struck out five batters in the game.
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Chicago acquired Kopech as part of the return from the Boston Red Sox in the Chris Sale blockbuster trade in 2016. For his career, Kopech is 10-15 with a 3.79 ERA and 233 strikeouts.
