Archive
Subscribe Place Ad Buy Trib Photos Readers' Choice Contests
Jobs Homes Autos Classifieds
Trib Total Media Contact Us
ShareThis Page
Nick Kingham, Triple-A player of the week, awaits another shot with Pirates | TribLIVE.com
Pirates/MLB

Nick Kingham, Triple-A player of the week, awaits another shot with Pirates

Tribune-Review
Tribune-Review | Monday, June 18, 2018 6:33 p.m
GTRBucs02052018
Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review
Pirates pitcher Nick Kingham throws during the second inning against the Padres Saturday, May 19, 2018, at PNC Park.

Nick Kingham continues to make his case that he deserves a permanent place in the Pirates’ starting rotation. But he’s doing so by way of his pitching, not via complaints.

“He’s not waiting by the door or by the phone,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said after Kingham was named the International League pitcher of the week Monday. “However when he continues to pitch like he does, it gives him (the organization’s) confidence in calling him up when an opportunity presents itself.”

Days after being optioned to Triple-A for the third time over a five-week span, Kingham pitched eight shutout innings against Toledo on Thursday to earn his second IL weekly honor this season.

Kingham has a 3.82 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in six MLB starts in 2018; he has a 1.67 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in seven outings for Indianapolis.

Because of his MLB duties — and a one-inning glorified bullpen session masqueraded as a Triple-A “start” May 25 — Kingham’s performance Thursday was his first full start for Indianapolis in a full month.

“I am proud of the way he’s gone about his opportunities,” Hurdle said.

“He’s focused on what he’s in control of, and he’s focused on what he needs to do and he’s focused on finding his way back here and pitching the best ball he can pitch where is at – and then wait for his next opportunity.”

Continued struggles by starter Trevor Williams would offer the next potential opportunity (barring injury) for a Kingham MLB start.

Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.

Categories: Pirates
TribLIVE commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.