Jared Koenig earns first major league victory

Jared Koenig knew that this moment would happen. It was just a matter of when.

The Oakland A’s pitcher had struggled in his first two major league outings. It was not that much of a surprise; after all, nothing had come easily in his career. However, it was also clear that he would work as hard as possible and do everything he could to turn things around.

Jared Koenig finds first taste of major league success with Oakland A’s

That happened on Sunday. Koenig allowed just two hits while issuing four walks over his 5.2 shutout innings, earning his first major league victory. It may not have been a dominant outing, but it was good enough considering that he was facing the Royals.

It is certainly better than his previous outings. Koenig had allowed ten runs on 14 hits and four walks over his eight innings, striking out six. Of course, those outings had also come against the Braves and Red Sox, two of the better teams in the majors. He had been thrown right into the fire when he got that call to the majors.

What is clear is that this is something for Koenig to build on. He clearly did not have his best stuff and his command was not what he would have wanted as only 52 of his 89 pitches were strikes. But he was able to battle through those issues and come within an out of his first quality start in the majors.

Sometimes, all it takes is that one outing. Success breeds success as the saying goes, and Koenig has been able to taste that at the major league level. Since his next outing is likely to be against the Royals in Kansas City, he should have a chance to keep improving.

Jared Koenig had been looking to improve over his first two major league outings. The Oakland A’s pitcher did just that on Sunday.