West Michigan’s Kyle Ryan has been named the Midwest League’s Pitcher of the Week for his efforts against the Lansing Lugnuts last Thursday. In the first game of a double-header, he threw six hitless innings, struck out three, and walked three. He even picked off a baserunner and retired 17 of the 20 batters he faced off against. Ryan never allowed a runner to reach scoring position and came three outs from the Whitecaps first no-hitter in just over a decade. He was pulled after the sixth innings after his pitch count reached 80.

Ryan was a 12th round pick of the Detroit Tigers in 2010 out of Auburndale High School in Florida. So far this season, he is 4-8 with a 3.46 ERA and has a team high nineteen starts. He leads the Whitecaps in quality starts with 13, and has allowed only 122 hits, has struck out 69, and only walked 26 in his 109.1 innings of work. The quality pitching of hurlers like Ryan, Alex Burgos, and Kevin Eichhorn are instrumental in the ‘Caps moving up from 5th place in the MWL Eastern Division. The team is only five games back, so there is still hopes for the playoffs.

In Eichhorn’s last outing, he threw a complete game, and had his own no-hit bid going until the sixth inning in a game against the Bowling Green Hot Rods. He ended up only allowing four hits by the Hot Rods, gave up one earned run, while striking out two and walking one hitter. Sixteen of his outs were ground balls. At one point in the game, he retired fifteen batters in a row. Eichhorn increased his record to 8-3, but is 5-0 in his last ten starts. His ERA is 3.47, but was only 2.69 in those last ten outings. His eight wins leads the team.

Following up Eichhorn’s complete game, Burgos struck out a career high ten batters in the Whitecaps victory over the Dayton Dragons. He retired 17 of the first 19 hitters he faced off against, and took a one-hit shutout into the seventh inning. The left-handed Burgos is now 6-2 on the season. A fifth-round draft pick in 2010, he missed the first two months of the season after developing bicep tendonitis during spring training in his throwing are.

Photo courtesy of the West Michigan Whitecaps