Good Talk: Frisco’s Kasey Kiker Responds To Meeting

D-tails – Boxscore: Frisco 1, Arkansas 0 (13 innings);  MJH’s pitch-by-pitch breakdown of Kiker’s outing.

FRISCO – Kasey Kiker’s last start resulted in him – and the entire Frisco pitching staff – getting roasted. His start on Tuesday nearly got him toasted. With champagne.

Though he ended up with no decision in the RoughRiders’ 1-0 13-inning win over Arkansas, Kiker was perfect through four innings and took a no-hitter to the sixth. When he left after seven, he had allowed only a single and two walks in quite possibly the best start of his professional career.

It was a stark contrast from his last outing, last Thursday. In that 11-9 loss to Springfield, Kiker allowed four walks and hit three batters in five innings. His teammates continued the walk-a-thon, eventually allowing a total of 14 free bases on walks and hit batters.

And the next day, pitching coach Joe Slusarski sat the entire staff down for a little talk.

“That was not the way we prepared them in spring training,” Slusarski said. “We told them not to try to do more than we are asking them to do. They should be able to throw strikes with two different pitches. They didn’t need to embarrass hitters, just get them out.

“They’ve responded. From time to time at this level, these talks are necessary. When enough is enough, you just have to challenge them.”

The 11 a.m. start Tuesday was Kiker’s first opportunity to respond to the challenge.  He didn’t mess around. MJH has already has a brilliant pitch-by-pitch, inning-by-inning breakdown of Kiker’s day, so let’s just suffice to say he was aggressive with the fastball, and wasn’t tentative when it came to throwing inside. That set hitters up perfectly for the change, which has always been Kiker’s out pitch, and the curveball, which a scout described as “plain,” but even a “plain” curveball is dangerous when a hitter is down in the count.

“He looked like a confident pitcher out there,” said a scout who watched both of Kiker’s last two outings. “His plan was obvious to me early. It was not obvious last time. He was very aggressive and he pitched in with the fastball, which set up the change. He commanded the fastball. And he used that plain curve ball wisely – except with a no-hitter on the line in the sixth.”

Kiker, who threw three no-hitters in high school (including one perfect game), wasn’t upset about throwing the curve with two outs and a 1-and-2 count on No. 9 hitter Nate Sutton. But he said he knew he had thrown a hanging curve the second it left his hand.

“It was a good pitch, just a bad location,” Kiker said. “I can’t leave it hanging. I just hoped he’d pop it up somewhere.”

Instead, he hit a soft, liner over the head of shortstop Marcus Lemon into shallow left field for a single.

Kiker didn’t lose focus after he lost the no-hitter. He got leadoff man Coby Smith to pop out to the catcher on a change up to end the inning, then worked around a one-out walk in the seventh.

And then, some six innings later, after the winning run scored on a grounder to short, Kiker was finally to discuss what he’d learned in the last week.

“I wasn’t very happy with myself,” he said. “I worked really hard on my last bullpen, just concentrating on getting the fastball where I wanted it [in vs. right-handers; away vs. lefties]. It was good to face right-handers today and see the work pay off. I just wanted to attack the zone out there. It was the biggest difference today. I got ahead. I made them put the ball in play. I let the defense make the plays.”