Allard puts up seven zeros for M-Braves

Kolby Allard considers himself a perfectionist, and even as he approaches the 150-inning mark for the first time in his career, he hopes to keep producing quality starts with zeros in the opposition's run column.
Saturday night's outing fit the bill for the Braves' No. 3 prospect.
Allard scattered five hits and struck out nine over a season-high seven frames as Double-A Mississippi blanked Pensacola, 5-0, at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

Gameday box score
"I thought I was throwing the ball pretty well," MLB.com's No. 25 overall prospect said. "The last couple of starts I thought I've done a good job keeping my team in the game and giving us a chance to win and going deeper into ballgames."
Allard has pitched at least six innings in all five of his August starts and owns a 2.56 ERA and 1.04 WHIP with 34 strikeouts in 31 2/3 frames this month. For the season, the southpaw has a 3.34 ERA with 124 strikeouts in 143 frames. Aside from some minor tweaks, M-Braves pitching coach Derrick Lewis has seen a hurler who has remained consistent throughout the year. 
"He's really just been using his fastball command," Lewis said. "And he's coming out at the beginning of the game with his fastball command and that's really set the tone. And that's pretty much it, and obviously for most pitchers it's fastball command. For him, he's been getting off to good starts with a tremendous fastball early and he's kept it going." 
Allard's night started when he gave up a line-drive single to No. 27 Reds prospectBlake Trahan. But using both sides of the plate effectively, the left-hander fanned Gabriel Guerrero and got Josh VanMeter to ground into a double play. 
Gavin LaValley singled to lead off the second, but the 2015 first-round pick got sixth-ranked Reds prospect Aristides Aquino to bounce into a double play. Jonathan Reynoso reached on an infield hit and was stranded after Joe Hudson grounded out back to the mound.
"That's definitely one thing I've been working on this year, situational pitching," Allard said. "Having a 1-0 or 2-0 count and instead of going for the punchout, it's going for the quality pitches that are going to get you a ground ball and get you two outs in one. I think we did a pretty good job of that. We were ahead in the count in both of them and me and [catcher] Alex Jackson were on the same page. We executed those pitches well and obviously got the results we were looking for." 
Allard (7-11) settled in over the next three frames and retired nine of 10 batters with seven strikeouts. The Anaheim, California, native didn't dial up any extra velocity, but continually used his fastball and mixed in the occasional off-speed pitch to keep Pensacola guessing. 

"He had some strikeouts on some breaking balls tonight, but his fastball keeps hitters honest," Lewis said. "And after that he's able to mix in the breaking ball."
Trahan recorded his second hit with two outs in the sixth, but Allard got Guerrero to ground out to third. Pitching into the seventh in his second consecutive start, Allard retired the side on five pitches. In all, he threw 64 of 88 pitches for strikes. 
• Get tickets to an M-Braves game »
"I've learned more this year than I ever have in pitching," the California high school product said. "Going through the ups and downs, I've had a couple of rough starts, but I understand that comes with pitching. I obviously hold myself to a very, very high standard. Some people like that and some people don't, but I hold myself to a super-high standard. Every time out there, I feel like I should throw a shutout.
"You obviously have to roll with the punches, but overall this year there's stuff I could have done better with. But I can grow on it and build into next year." 
Dylan Moore delivered his seventh home run and drove in two runs, while Jared James and Joey Meneses added two hits and an RBI apiece for Mississippi.