GLENDALE, Ariz. — Michael Kopech began his May 22 outing last season at Yankee Stadium getting DJ LeMahieu to fly out to right field.
It was a routine start to an extraordinary performance for the Chicago White Sox right-hander, who retired the first 17 batters during the nationally televised Sunday night game.
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Rob Brantly broke up the perfect game with a two-out double in the sixth. Kopech exited after the seventh, allowing just the one hit with two walks in a 5-0 victory to help the Sox complete a doubleheader sweep.
The night stood out to Kopech for multiple reasons.
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“My son was born two days before and I flew in the next day and got ready to pitch,” Kopech said Friday at Camelback Ranch. “Ultimately I carried that game with a lot of memory and I cherish it a lot because of the timing of it.
“But what I’m capable of is that and hopefully more to come. That’s just one of those games where I felt comfortable and had a little flow to me. I hope to take moments like that into the season and into my future.”
Kopech, 26, looks to take the next step after going 5-9 with a 3.54 ERA in 25 starts in 2022. It was his first season back in the rotation after spending 2021 largely in a relief role.
Kopech had a 105 strikeouts in 119⅓ innings. He’s aiming for more time on the mound.
“Hopefully I’d like to throw more innings than I did last year, make 30-plus starts,” Kopech said. “I had 25 last year and not a lot of innings my first full season as a starter. So the more I can do to help the team every five days, that’s one (goal).
“Just to get close to 180-200 innings would make a lot of difference to me and would be a help to the team more than it was last year.”
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Kopech made his final start of the season on Sept. 13 and went on the injured list later that week with right shoulder inflammation. He underwent surgery in late September to address what the team called an “issue with (his right) meniscus.”
“I’m at a point where the knee’s feeling better, the shoulder’s feeling better,” Kopech said. “But it’s just kind of smoothing things out and getting back to 100%.
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“I feel ready. It will be a little bit before I get to hitters, but I’ll be ready by opening day.”
Sox manager Pedro Grifol has watched “two or three” of Kopech’s bullpen sessions and said he’s “in a good spot.”
“Since I’ve been here at camp, I’ve been able to work with the training staff and strength staff and get myself to feeling good,” Kopech said, “and so ultimately when I’m feeling good physically, I can get to a state where I’m feeling good mentally and then everything should kind of come together and take care of itself.
“With surgery it takes a while to get to feeling yourself again. Ultimately it was not a major surgery, it was a surgery that was a little bit of time consumption. For the most part I feel comfortable on it. I just have to get back to being explosive and being myself again. … Ultimately I want to be as healthy as I can and I’m on track to do that.”
Grifol called Kopech a “hard worker” who is “in the right frame of mind.”
“He’s on track,” Grifol said. “He’s obviously a big part of this. He’s on track to do his thing wherever we slot him in. He’s got to go through the process, but he’s right on pace to be where we want him to be at the start of the season.
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“He’s just got to be healthy throughout the spring. If he’s healthy throughout the spring, he’ll be ready to go. Not opening day, obviously, but probably the second series.”
With a journey that included missing all of 2019 recovering from Tommy John surgery after making his big-league debut late in 2018, Kopech will be ready for that next challenge whenever he’s slated to start.
“It’s crazy to think about,” Kopech said. “It kind of flies by. I still feel like I’m 22. My body might disagree with me but I still feel like a young kid in this game.
“Hopefully I have a few more years that are still youthful and strong. I’m going to do everything I can to be as impactful in this game as I can.”
