Cubs' Alzolay comes within two outs of no-no

It was meant to be encouragement, not superstition. Myrtle Beach starter Adbert Alzolay was getting ready to make his seventh start of the season when fellow pitcher Justin Steele asked for a high-five. 
"Everyone else was staying in the same position, but we kept giving each other a high-five," Alzolay said. "We did that every inning."

That might have to become a tradition.
Alzolay came within two outs of a no-hitter Wednesday before completing his first career shutout in Class A Advanced Myrtle Beach's 1-0 win over Winston-Salem in the first game of a doubleheader at BB&T Ballpark. He allowed two hits, three walks and three strikeouts over seven frames.
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The 22-year-old right-hander, who also notched the first complete game in his five seasons in the Minors, made quick work of Brady Conlan to begin the seventh by getting the Dash designated hitter to bounce out to third on the first pitch of the inning. He got Louis Silverio to put the ball on the ground on the second pitch he saw -- he faked a bunt on the first offering -- but the result was far less desirable.
"Looking in at the hitter, I thought I just needed to make my pitch," Alzolay said. "I thought I'd thrown a perfect fastball. He hit a ground ball to first, and I started thinking, 'Oh gosh, that's a really soft ground ball.' When I saw the first baseman dive and miss it, I knew that was it."
Silverio's soft grounder scurried past Matt Rose, who was playing far off the bag at first, but by the time second baseman Carlos Sepulveda could gather it and throw to Alzolay covering first, it was too late. The Pelicans starter allowed another hit -- a line-drive single by Toby Thomas -- in the final frame but ended the threat by getting Johan Cruz to bounce out to short.

As good as Alzolay was throughout Wednesday's outing, it took an early adjustment after he walked leadoff hitter Luis Alexander Basabe on five pitches for him to get in a groove.
"I started to feel good in the second inning," he said. "The first inning, I thought I was getting lazy, so I wanted to work with a different tempo. The first inning, my windup was slow. After that, I just wanted to catch, get set and throw it. Then, I was working better down in the zone, and my secondary pitches [a curveball and changeup] were better. They were the key to today."
As the innings went by, the Venezuela native could feel his confidence growing as he got closer and closer to the Carolina League's first no-hitter of the season, even if it wasn't meant to be.

"I was thinking I could do it," Alzolay said. "It really was in my mind the whole time."
With the gem, the right-hander improved to 3-0 with a 2.38 ERA (seventh-best in the circuit), 1.24 WHIP and 26 strikeouts in 34 innings. With a mid-90's fastball highlighting his three-pitch mix, he's made significant improvements over his 2016 season in which he posted a 4.34 ERA over 120 1/3 innings at Class A South Bend. Even Wednesday's outing was a nice bounce-back performance from his last outing May 3, when he allowed two earned runs on four hits and two walks and needed 61 pitches to get through 1 2/3 innings against Frederick.
Alzolay's improvements between that start and Wednesday's gem say as much about his work between the ears as it does on the mound with the hurler tapping into his prior work with the Cubs' mental skills program, led by former Major Leaguer Darnell McDonald.
"After my last outing, I wanted to do a better job of staying in control early," he said. "That's my problem. When I lose control of myself, that's when bad things happen. So I wanted to stay in control, and I focused on doing meditation to make that happen. I like to focus on staying in the present. It keeps me in control."
With the way Wednesday worked out, Alzolay promised to do everything in his power to make sure his next outing has the chance to be even better than this one, even if that includes keeping with the high-fives.
"Everything will be on the same page," he said. "I'll keep the same motion, the same tempo. Everything that worked today will be the same next time."