Keegan Akin just misses no-hitter

[Angels]

Orioles No. 5 prospect allows one hit over eight scoreless innings


By Michael Peng / MiLB.com | June 27, 2017

Early into Tuesday's outing, Keegan Akin caught himself doing a little too much on the mound.

"Your instincts kick in when you're not hitting your spots," the fifth-ranked Orioles prospect said. "You try a little bit harder and you give it a little more effort and overthrow, so I came in the dugout and told myself to back off a little bit and it seemed to work out."

Akin went on to toss eight one-hit innings in Class A Advanced Frederick's 5-1 win over Wilmington at Nymeo Field. He took a no-no bid into the eighth and finished with six strikeouts and three walks. "My command got better as my outing went," Akin said. "My slider was working good for me today as an off-speed pitch, but I'd say establishing the fastball command was definitely a huge part of the success."

The 22-year-old left-hander worked around a leadoff walk to D.J. Burt to start the game before delivering 1-2-3 innings in the second and third.

"When I flipped the lineup, [catcher Stuart Levy] and I talked about starting to mix in some off-speed," Akin said, "but we'll make them prove they can hit the fastball first. I was just hitting my spots and getting ahead. Usually good things happen when you're ahead in the count."

The 2016 second-round pick issued a walk the next two frames, but still held the Blue Rocks lineup hitless after seven innings. "When I was in the dugout, I was thinking about [the no-hitter]," he said, "but when I got on the mound, it was 'go' time and I kind of forgot about it a little bit."

Carrying 93 pitches into the eighth, Akin said he did tire some on the mound, but he fanned Royals sixth-ranked prospect Chase Vallot and Chris DeVito to start the inning.

"I knew I had to lock it in mentally," he said. "With the first two guys striking out, I was smelling blood in the water. But then on the first pitch, it was just a jam shot for a base hit. I just knew [it was a hit] in the back of my head."

Cody Jones singled to center, but the lefty responded by getting Carlos Diaz to ground out to second to cap his outing at 110 pitches while lowering his ERA to a season-best 3.76.

"I'm just doing my work in between starts, working on the delivery, working on the mechanics," said Akin, who has allowed just three runs in his last 30 innings. "When you can throw a bullpen and hit your spots, execute your pitches, it just gives you that much more confidence. When you're out on the mound, muscle memory takes in and just transfers right over. It's a big confidence booster when you can repeat your pitches like I did in the bullpen to the mound."