Lynchburg's Civale shines on his birthday

Aaron Civale took the mound on his 22nd birthday and gave himself perhaps the best present a pitcher can get.
Cleveland's No. 20 prospect faced the minimum in seven of his eight innings, allowing one run on two hits during the longest start of his professional career as Class A Advanced Lynchburg rolled over Wilmington, 8-1, on Monday night.

"I think that's actually the first time I've pitched on my birthday," Civale said. "At least since Little League, I think it is. It was definitely cool to go out there and do that."
Gameday box score
The Northeastern University product retired the first nine batters faced as the Hillcats charged out to a 6-0 lead. That provided plenty of motivation for Civale (2-1). 
"It was definitely nice just confidence-wise, team-wise," the right-hander said. "Everyone seemed to be feeling it. I just tried to keep the offense going, get them back in [the dugout] as soon as I could. They did a great job getting an early lead.
"It's just something, as a pitcher, that you try to do -- get a shutdown inning after some runs. We ended up scoring in a good amount of the innings, so it was good motivation to get those guys back in there and keep them doing their work."
The cushion allowed Civale to work with some margin for error, though he pitched like he had none. The East Windsor, Connecticut native ran into trouble in the fourth frame when Royals No. 22 prospectNicky Lopez led off a with a double and scored on Anderson Miller's single two batters later. After that, Civale faced the minimum through his final four frames, finishing with four strikeouts and without any walks.
"I was on the same page as the catcher [Daniel Salters] for most of the game," he said. "I didn't do too much shaking [off] and pretty much had four to five pitches working for me the whole game. I just kind of focused more on executing rather than which pitch to call exactly. It helps when you have a few pitches in the zone to keep the hitters off balance."
Civale's five-pitch repertoire is uncommonly deep for a pitcher in the low Minors, and he considers it an asset.

"I try to be comfortable with throwing any pitch in any count," the 6-foot-2, 215-pound hurler said. "That way hitters can't get too comfortable up there. That's the name of the game, pitchers trying to keep hitters uncomfortable. It helps definitely to have a handful of pitches to be able to throw any time."
In 10 outings with Class A Lake County to begin the year, Civale went 2-4 with a 4.58 ERA. Since being bumped up to the Carolina League, he's found a groove, and Monday's win dropped his ERA to 1.96 in 18 1/3 innings on the circuit. 
"I was just trying to go out there and get guys out in three pitches or less," he said. "That's what I was working towards, and it was working, let the defense make the plays and let the pitches play how they play. Things just worked out."
Justin Garcia retired the side in order in the ninth for Lynchburg, which has won five straight.