Rookie right-hander George Klassen is beginning to figure out how to succeed at the big-league level.
The 24-year-old may never have been touted as a top-100 prospect by either MLB Pipeline or Baseball America, but he was always regarded as an intriguing prospect for his electric stuff and shaky command. In his second stint in the big leagues this season, his command has tightened up, and he's showing the type of ceiling he has.
Klassen pitched the best start of his very young big-league career Tuesday night in Houston when he tossed seven shutout innings on only one hit in the Angels’ 3-1 win over the Astros.
He needed only two pitches to dominate the Astros in this one. Klassen primarily used his fastball and slider, with the slider being the biggest weapon in his arsenal.
It didn’t matter if Klassen’s slider was in the strike zone or not; it was unhittable. Hitters whiffed at his slider in 12 out of 20 swings and only hit one ball hard out of five balls put in play.
Klassen also featured an upper-90s fastball that sat at 96.7 mph and topped out at 99.2 mph. The only hit he allowed on the night was off his fastball back in the first inning.
Klassen struck out seven with three walks.
Since rejoining the Angels’ rotation at the beginning of the month, Klassen has a 1.59 ERA in three starts with 15 strikeouts and eight walks in 17 innings pitched.
The Angels’ offense thrived with two outs, recording a two-out hit after making an out in the first two batters of the inning four innings in a row, as well as scoring all three of their runs with two outs. Only one of their eight hits on the night came with less than two outs.
Wade Meckler got things started in the third inning with a two-out single. He stole second base and then scored on Nolan Schanuel’s RBI single.
The following inning, Josh Lowe belted his 10th home run of the season into the Crawford Boxes in left field, which also came with two outs.
Then in the fifth, it was Schanuel’s turn to get things started with two outs with a single. He scored the next batter when Zach Neto’s double off the wall in left field kicked back toward the infield, out of the reach of Astros left fielder Taylor Trammell.