Spikes pitcher Anthony Shew hoping to follow in cousin Ian Kennedy’s footsteps
Anthony Shew followed the career of his cousin, Ian Kennedy, growing up and still emulates the major league pitcher today.
He remembers going to Kennedy’s games at the University of Southern California, where it was clear Kennedy was “the guy.” Kennedy was then drafted in the first round of the 2006 MLB draft by the New York Yankees and first pitched in the big leagues in 2007. Shew, a pitcher for the State College Spikes, still watches highlights of his cousin’s games with the Kansas City Royals and hopes to follow in his footsteps in professional baseball.
“It’s really cool getting to have some exposure to the highest level in that way,” Shew said, referring to following Kennedy’s career.
Shew, a right-handed pitcher like Kennedy, led the Spikes to a 7-1 win over the Auburn Doubledays on Wednesday night at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. Shew allowed five hits and one run while striking out eight in 5 2/3 innings to earn his second win of the season. After five innings, the right-hander had turned in a near-identical performance last Thursday in a win over Batavia.
“As defenders, we loved it because it was just 1-2-3 innings,” State College’s Evan Mendoza said. “We were back in the dugout starting to hit so credit to Shew. He pitched a really good game.”
In Shew’s first start, he turned in a performance that even Kennedy would’ve been proud of. He allowed three hits — all singles — and struck out seven in five scoreless innings to pick up his first win. On Wednesday, Shew gave up three singles and struck out six in five scoreless innings. The right-hander finally allowed an extra-base hit with one out in the sixth inning when Auburn’s Randy Encarnacion doubled off the left field wall. After striking out Oliver Ortiz on an offspeed pitch, Shew allowed an infield single before handing the ball to Spikes manager Joe Kruzel and walking to the dugout to applause with his team ahead 4-0.
Kruzel noted that Shew was throwing three pitches for strikes — Shew has yet to walk a batter in 10 2/3 innings — and added that the right-hander pitched inside to keep hitters honest. With an effective mix of his fastball, change-up and breaking ball, Shew improved his record to 2-0 with the Spikes.
“I think he’s got some deception in his pitches, and I think that change-up kind of neutralizes some of the hitters,” Kruzel said. “Then when he does pop the fastball, it makes it look a little firmer.
“But his arm speed on his change-up is extremely good, so I think that makes it look like he’s throwing the fastball and it ends up being the change-up and gets guys out front.”
It started with throwing strikes, something that was on his mind as he came to the ballpark Wednesday. During the Spikes’ day off Tuesday, Shew watched the matchup between Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer and Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta. (Kennedy didn’t play Tuesday; he pitched Wednesday and picked up the win over the Detroit Tigers.) Scherzer allowed one run and two hits and didn’t walk a batter in six innings to earn the win, and Shew watched an interview with Scherzer talking about throwing four pitches for strikes.
That was his goal for his start Wednesday.
He doesn’t watch major league games often, but he takes the time to watch highlights of his cousin on the mound. He uses the same glove and wears the same cleats as Kennedy, and he’s tried to emulate how he carries himself on the mound.
“There’s a calmness about him on the mound,” Shew said. “There’s a certain poise. There’s a certain composure that I like to take away from him.”
Shew exuded that composure Wednesday night against the Doubledays, calmly walking off the mound to the dugout after each inning. He said he learned how to stay in control mentally during his college career at San Francisco, where he played before going undrafted.
He’s taken a different path to professional baseball than his cousin. They joked about that at Thanksgiving last year when conversation turned to a bet Kennedy and James Shields had about how big-league spring training and minor-league spring training were different.
“It’s funny because I think he was in big-league spring training his whole career, got the non-roster invites and stuff like that,” Shew said. “I talked about, ‘What should I expect in spring training?’ And he’s like, ‘Uh, I don’t know.’”
Shew laughed before sharing some advice he received.
“He still gave me tidbits about how organizations work, things to expect, things not to expect,” Shew said. “How you should be conducting yourself, how you should be going to work with a purpose.”
This story was originally published June 29, 2017 at 12:08 AM with the headline "Spikes pitcher Anthony Shew hoping to follow in cousin Ian Kennedy’s footsteps."