Naturals' Staumont spins seven hitless innings

The final line on Josh Staumont's outing shows he pitched seven hitless innings on Wednesday night, but the reality was much more complex. In it, he found pieces to be proud of and a lot more to continue working on.
The Royals' ninth-ranked prospect was charged with one run -- but not a hit -- in his longest outing of the season, striking out eight and issuing five walks, as Double-A Northwest Arkansas beat Springfield, 5-1, at Arvest Ballpark.

"This season's been a little bit of a maelstrom when it comes to success," Staumont said. "I can't by any means say that I've been happy with my performance recently, but trending upwards is something I think everyone wants to hear when it comes to success."

Staumont's outing, like his season, had its stormy moments. The right-hander walked Magneuris Sierra to begin the game and hit Oscar Mercado with a pitch. Darren Seferina's sacrifice and Jose Adolis Garcia's sacrifice fly produced the Cardinals' only run of the night. From there, Staumont stymied Springfield, despite battling his command at times.
"When we walked a guy, it was pretty quick. It was like four pitches and we kind of just got back on track," he said. "Overall, I wouldn't say it was a terrible control night. When I was getting 2-0, a lot of the time we were kind of losing pitches rather than going right after them. That's kind of where I messed up personally, but at the same time, that's just pitching and how it goes. I think the biggest thing tonight was establishing the curveball for both a chase and a strike pitch early and going off that and letting them play off each other."
Staumont walked Tommy Edman and Sierra in the third inning before retiring the next three batters and settling into a rhythm.
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"You have to, as a pitcher, adjust accordingly," he said. "A lot of times, adjustments come pitch to pitch. They come inning to inning and batter to batter. I think a lot of the time, our adjustments are really being made seeing how the innings are projecting and seeing specific counts. We threw primarily fast-curve today. They both play like completely different pitches, although it's the same pitch. So a curveball down is a completely different pitch than for a strike and vice-versa for a fastball. I think we just got into a groove and just let it play."
From the fourth through the seventh, the Azusa Pacific product faced two batters over the minimum, walking Oscar Mercado leading off the sixth and Bruce Caldwell with one out in the seventh. What he caused in self-inflicted stress, he helped undo with his third-highest strikeout total of the year. Staumont fanned at least one batter in six of seven innings.
Edman broke up Northwest Arkansas' no-hit bid, reaching on an infield single to open the eighth against reliever Richard Lovelady.

Wednesday was the third time since May 24 that Staumont has allowed just one earned run. The 23-year-old started his season with early success at Triple-A, boasting a 3.32 ERA through eight starts with Omaha, before he began to scuffle. Sent back to Double-A on July 5, his seventh outing with the Naturals might have been a signal of a tumultuous year settling as it nears the end.
"I think this year has been more of a teaching year which, unfortunately, has been kind of humbling," he said. "We got a little bit out of sync and hit a wall through June and July. August has been kind of buckle down, get back on things.

"I think the biggest thing about this year is taking away all the things I've learned and hitting next year with the same intensity. I don't think there's much that I want to change because I'm a huge believer in the process rather than the outcome."
While it wasn't an ideal outing, Staumont still set the tone for his team. The Naturals put a run on the board in the bottom of the first on an RBI double to left by Royals No. 13 prospect Samir Dueñez, then took the lead with two in the third, highlighted by Duenez's RBI single.
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The ultimate moral for Staumont was that he produced a win for his team. It also provided motivation to keep going to find consistency.
"I wasn't overjoyed with today's outcome," he said. "Although it was a good one, I still walked a bunch of guys and was behind and made good pitches in order to get those outs. Sticking by that process, I like the upward trend of success. I think that's the key. If you're taking two steps forward here, you better not be taking three steps back."