Rain, rain won't stay away for White Sox's Kopech

There's a reason the Chicago White Sox brought up top pitching prospect Michael Kopech from Class AAA Charlotte late this season while leaving top outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez off the roster for more "development."

When he does join the Sox next April, odds are favorable Jimenez is going to be a force with the bat.

Pitchers are different.

"You're seeing with this promotion here, from a baseball standpoint, we felt like it made the most sense to get Michael here, build off that innings base, make his debut in his age-22 season and head into this off-season with a clear focus and understanding of exactly what it takes to get big-league hitters out," general manager Rick Hahn said.

"From a development standpoint, we felt that this was in the best interest of Michael to put him in the ideal position to reach that ceiling of his. Each individual player is similarly judged based upon what is best for them as an individual."

Letting Kopech pitch against the best hitters in the game and evaluating his considerable skills were the White Sox's goals when they brought up the right-hander up on Aug. 21, but there have been some outside factors.

Mainly, the rain.

Kopech's first 2 home starts were abbreviated due to rain delays, and the skies opened up again in Wednesday night's outing against the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field. This time, Kopech was able to come back out after the first of two delays came in the bottom of the second inning and was limited to 28 minutes.

But the prized pitching prospect lacked his big fastball before and after the bad weather hit, and Kopech was tagged for 7 runs on 9 hits and 1 walk in 3⅓ innings. Detroit defeated the White Sox 10-2.

In the fourth, Kopech was rocked by 5 straight hits to open the inning, 3 of them home runs. His ERA jumped from 0.82 to 5.02.

Kopech didn't blame a third straight rain delay at home for his struggles. "Obviously, I didn't have my best stuff and I wasn't locating, either," he said.

A fastball that regularly reaches 97-98 mph was stuck at 93 for most of the night, forcing Kopech to go with a steady mix of off-speed pitches after the rain delay.

"I was pitching like I was throwing 100, but I was throwing 93, 94," Kopech said. "You can't miss your spots with that velocity. I felt fine. I didn't pitch well, that's the gist of it."