M-Braves' Allard wins hefty pitching duel

Unless your name was Eddy Alvarez, it was tough sledding Thursday night against Kolby Allard.
"Yeah, I don't know, man," Atlanta's No. 3 prospect said with a laugh, trying to explain Alvarez's 3-for-3 night against him. "I was just trying to go up there and throw, and I guess he had my number."

Allard matched a career high with 11 strikeouts and didn't allow any other hits or walks over six innings, outdueling third-ranked White Sox prospect Michael Kopech as Double-A Mississippi blanked Birmingham, 3-0.

Outside of their leadoff man, the Barons couldn't solve Allard (2-1). Alvarez beat out an infield knock against baseball's No. 47 overall prospect to lead off the first inning, bounced a single to right field in the fourth and lined his third hit to center. Otherwise, Birmingham went hitless against Allard. He faced just three batters over the minimum and threaded his night with strikeouts, fanning at least one batter in five of his six innings.
Across the way, matched him inning for inning through the game's first four frames was Kopech, which fostered a brisk back-and-forth pace for both sides.
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"Me and (catcher Kade Scivicque) had a pretty good plan going into the game," Allard said. "We executed it pretty well. When you can work pretty quick and get in that rhythm, it's good for your confidence, good for your defense, good for everyone. It's good that we could establish that tempo early."
The Braves broke through against Kopech in the fifth. Luis Valenzuela hammered a two-run homer to right to cap off a three-run inning and give Allard more than enough run support.

The 19-year-old notched strikeouts for three of his final four outs, including his third whiff of Courtney Hawkins to end his night. Allard's 11 K's marked his most since matching that total on Aug. 3 with Class A Rome vs. Lexington.
"My curveball was pretty good," he said. "I was locating my fastball for the most part pretty well. The changeup, I made some good ones. I threw some ones that could've been better, but overall, I threw the ball pretty well. I'm happy with that."
Allard is just 19, one of the youngest arms in the Double-A ranks, and jumped over Class A Advanced to start the year with Mississippi. Through six outings, the Anaheim native sports a 1.36 ERA, 28 strikeouts and seven walks in 33 innings. Thursday marked his third scoreless outing in six starts this season.
"It's a good feeling to get out there and be throwing the ball well," Allard said. "You try not really to think about that kind of stuff. That's stuff that's out of your control, so you just go out there each and every day to get better and every fifth day go out there and execute your pitches. For the most part, no matter what level you're at, if you're executing your pitches, you're going to get outs for the most part."
He was also pleased about not issuing any walks, although the 2015 first-rounder said it's not part of his game.

"Obviously there are points in the game where you're going to pitch around guys and you're going to give walks," Allard said. "Some walks aren't bad walks, but ... I pride myself on throwing strikes and keeping the defense into it. I felt like I did a pretty good job of that."
By the time he departed, he had fired 63 of his 95 pitches for strikes. When the Barons put the ball in play, they were kept on the ground with three outs there vs. one fly ball.
"I don't feel like it's like a breakout start or anything like that," Allard said. "I just feel like I went out there and did what I expect of myself to do. Hopefully going out there every five days, you can keep it rolling and keep helping your team get W's."
Kopech took the loss, falling to 1-2 on the year. MLB.com's No. 14 overall prospect was charged with three runs on four hits and two walks while striking out eight in six innings.