RubberDucks' Plesac delivers another gem

Zach Plesac learned less than a week ago that he'd be making the jump to Double-A. Two starts into his Eastern League tenure, he's making the transition look seamless. 
The Indians prospect yielded three hits and struck out four over six innings to lead Akron to a 3-0 blanking of Altoona on Tuesday at Peoples Natural Gas Field. He's thrown back-to-back scoreless outings at Double-A and had not allowed a run in his last three starts overall.

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"I would say commanding my fastball has been huge," Plesac said. "It allows me to set up at-bats, throwing strikes. It's trusting my catcher and just keeping at what I was doing from High-A. It's staying consistent with what I've been doing and just trusting my stuff. My confidence has been building, so I've been feeding off that and attacking the zone."
In his debut with the RubberDucks on May 24, Plesac (2-0) allowed two hits and a walk with eight punchouts over 5 2/3 frames against Trenton. On Tuesday, the right-hander threw 63 of 87 pitches for strikes, recording nine flyouts and five outs on the ground. 
Now with three straight strong outings under his belt, Plesac said he thinks that using his whole array of pitches has benefited him in a scoreless streak that's reached 18 innings. 
"It's the fastball command and I have a harder slider," the hurler said. "I have a breaking ball that's a little slower. So I have two different looks at the breaking ball. And then my changeup has been working really well for me. So I think being able to understand what counts I can use those pitches is definitely helping me out."
Plesac retired the first eight batters he faced, striking out the side in the second, before Pirates No. 19 prospectStephen Alemais laced a single up the middle with two outs in the third. The 2016 12th-round pick tried a pickoff at first, but the throw was wide of the bag and allowed Alemais to race to the third. Undeterred, Plesac retired fifth-ranked Cole Tucker on a grounder to second.
With one down in the fourth, the Ball State product got into another jam when Bucs No. 6 prospect Bryan Reynolds and 17th-ranked Will Craig laced consecutive singles and moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. After a mound visit from pitching coach Rigo Beltran that centered on sticking with the game plan, Plesac prevailed again by throwing out Reynolds at the plate on a fielder's choice and whiffing Logan Hill to close out the frame. 
With the "hybrid stance" Plesac uses in his delivery, the mound visit with Beltran proved twofold. It allowed Altoona and the umpires to know whether he'd be pitching out of the stretch or windup each at-bat with runners on and kept the hurler on track in a difficult inning. 
"It was just executing pitches and getting into a good count," Plesac said. "I ended up getting a chopper back to me and we tagged him at home and then the next dude punched [out]. It was a good test of being in a crunch situation and getting the job done."
Plesac recorded back-to-back 1-2-3 innings to close his night. 

In 10 starts between Class A Advanced Lynchburg and Akron, the 23-year-old is 5-2 with a 3.43 ERA and 1.04 WHIP over 57 2/3 innings. Since recovering from Tommy John surgery, Plesac has a 2.98 ERA and 0.98 WHIP in 24 games, including 23 starts. 
"It's been a long time coming, coming back from rehab and all the work I've been putting in," he said. "It's been feeling really good for me. But I'm not settling and being complacent, I'm looking to build -- I've still got areas to get better at. I'm learning, and I've been growing each start and I look forward building off every start."
Nick Pasquale retired all six batters he faced and Argenis Angulo worked around a walk in the ninth for his fourth save.