Tuesday’s day off will allow Michael Kopech more time to heed manager Pedro Grifol’s suggestion that the White Sox “flush” their 12-3 setback to the Giants out of their collective systems.
But considering Kopech allowed five of the seven home runs smacked Monday by the Giants, a semi-deep analysis could be in order after the poundage dampened the spirits of a home-opening crowd of 34,784.
During spring training, Kopech’s velocity hovered below 95 mph, a few ticks slower than his 2022 average that at times made him nearly as dominant as American League Cy Young contender Dylan Cease.
Kopech’s fastball topped out at 97.1 mph but averaged 94.4 during his 4 2/3-inning stint, according to Baseball Savant.
More discouraging to Kopech and the Sox was that the Giants’ hitters squared all of his home run pitches with conviction. Michael Conforto hit a shoulder-high fastball on an 0-2 pitch for the first of four homers in the fifth that eventually knocked out Kopech.
Thairo Estrada and Mike Yastrzemski smacked breaking pitches for solo shots before David Villar hit the first of his two homers on a 95 mph fastball well over the left field fence.
Kopech was fortunate the damage off wasn’t more severe, as center fielder Luis Robert Jr. made a leaping catch to rob Joc Pederson of his second homer of the game in the third.
The fact the Giants took Kopech deep frequently on a variety of pitches raised the question as to whether he might have been tipping his pitches.
“We’re going to look at it,” said Grifol, who received a loud ovation in pregame introductions prior to his first home game as Sox manager. “
We’re going to look at everything. We’re not going to leave any stone unturned. We’re going to get to work on it and just make sure we’re covering all facets of the game.
“And that’s a part of it. That’s a real thing in baseball. It doesn’t matter whether it’s him or whoever it is. Every time somebody pitches for us, the next day we’re watching video to see if anything like that is happening. That’s just a part of our checklist.”
Kopech became the third pitcher in Sox history to allow five homers in a game, joining Eddie Lopat (April 23, 1947) at Detroit and Reynaldo Lopez (July 27, 2018) against the Blue Jays. And he didn’t rule the possibility that the Giants could tell which pitches he was throwing.
“If it wasn’t necessarily a tip, there was something I was doing different, breaking ball to fastball,” Kopech said. “Just by the body language of the hitters, they were on everything. I have enough speed difference to throw guys off a little bit. The fact they were on everything, they saw something. Whether it was a tip or just me presenting pitches differently, they put good swings on it and it showed.
“I’ve had guys stay on my stuff before and with that, it comes with getting hit. I’ll take that in my next bullpen (session), and we’ll work on it there.”
Kopech will receive an extra day of rest before his next scheduled start Sunday at Pittsburgh.
Backup infielder Hanser Alberto pitched the ninth and allowed a grand slam to Villar. The seven homers surrendered were one shy of the franchise record set July 31, 2007 at Yankee Stadium.
The only drama occurred in the bottom of the second after Andrew Vaughn exchanged words with Giants starter Andrew DeSclafani after hitting a feeble grounder on a 3-0 slider.
“He did not say a nice word,” DeSclafani told Giants beat writers.
Vaughn wasn’t available for 30 minutes after the game.
“It didn’t get too far, so I’m not going to get into that too much,” Grifol said.