Pirates reliever Kyle Nicolas pitches with conviction in fanning 5 against Cardinals

Kyle Nicolas has had his share of moments ranging from the emphatic to the erratic this season, so the Pittsburgh Pirates reliever wanted to focus on filling up the strike zone against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The result was Nicolas’ most impressive outing, as the right-hander struck out the heart of the Cardinals’ order in the seventh inning in fanning five batters in the 4-2 loss Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.

Five strikeouts were a career-best for Nicolas.

“That’s the biggest thing in pitching: throwing every pitch with a lot of conviction,” Nicolas said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “That was just what I was going to do today. That’s what I was telling myself: Just being intentful on every pitch.”

It didn’t hurt that he got some help from the first batter he faced. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt swung at a full-count fastball high and inside to give Nicolas his first of five consecutive strikeouts.

“I’d say any punch-out juices me up,” Nicolas said, with a laugh. “I was glad that he swung at that because it was not a strike.”

Nicolas got the next two batters out on three pitches apiece. Nolan Arenado went down looking at a knee-high slider for a called third strike, while Nolan Gorman chased a 99.1-mph fastball high and away.

Kyle Nicolas, K'ing the Side. pic.twitter.com/Ghjs0q6E1W

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 13, 2024

In the eighth, Nicolas got Ivan Herrera to chase a slider above the zone and froze Brendan Donovan with another 99.1-mph fastball over the heart of the plate before Dylan Carlson hit a dribbler to first for a groundout.

“When you’re doing that at the highest level of the game,” Pirates catcher Henry Davis said, “that builds confidence.”

So should this: Nicolas needed only 21 pitches to navigate two innings against the Cardinals, as the six batters he faced combined for 10 of their 11 hits. Both Arenado and Herrera had three apiece, Donovan added two and Goldschmidt and Carlson both had one.

“I know that my stuff is really good,” Nicolas said. “Just going out and doing it, honestly, that’s the biggest thing. I felt like I did that today and kept us in the game.”

It was a high point for Nicolas, who has endured some low moments this season. He threw 12 consecutive pitches for balls against the Chicago Cubs on May 11, allowing four runs on three walks in two-thirds of an inning. And he surrendered a two-run, walk-off home run to Davis Schneider in the 14th inning of a 5-3 loss at Toronto on May 31.

“Obviously, that couple games didn’t go the way he wanted, but it’s closer stuff,” Davis said. “It’s some of the best stuff I’ve caught.”

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Nicolas showed a bit of both in 2 1/3 innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in an 11-7 loss on June 6 at PNC Park. He gave up one run on two hits and three walks but also recorded back-to-back strikeouts of a pair of MVPs in Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the seventh.

Davis credited Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin for advising Nicolas to make an adjustment by moving toward the center of the mound so that he could focus on throwing pitches in the strike zone.

“It doesn’t feel like he’s necessarily throwing at as much of an angle,” Davis said. “It keeps him over the plate, and that’s all that really matters. When he’s in the zone, it’s unhittable. Tonight, I felt like I could call any pitch in any count.”

Nicolas mixed his four-seamer, curveball and slider and threw 16 of his 21 pitches for strikes, getting six whiffs and eight called strikes – five of which came on his first pitch.

“The biggest thing is, two innings, 21 pitches, was in the zone, went right after guys,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Nicolas. “Overall, I thought all three pitches worked really well. He did a nice job.”

Nicolas found success against St. Louis by concentrating on simplifying his mechanics and executing his pitches. He’s hoping that approach leads to more success.

“Definitely something I can build off,” Nicolas said. “I feel like if you take a sigh of relief, that’s where you start to take a step backward. Definitely not relieved. I’m still not satisfied with this outing. It’s definitely something to build on, though, and keep pushing forward.”