Aug 5, 2024 By Chris Dugan 4 min read

The way Wild Things starting pitcher Zach Kirby sees it, his eyeglasses have nothing to do with his success this season.

You see, Kirby pitched last year for Washington without wearing his glasses, but this year the bespeckled Kirby has worn the lenses and his results have been eye-opening.

A right-hander out of Upland, Calif., Kirby enters tonight’s series opener against Florence at Wild Things Park with a 6-4 record and is fifth in the Frontier League with a 2.34 ERA. He is part of a Washington starting rotation that has won 15 of its last 16 decisions.

Last year, his first in pro ball, Kirby was the league’s tough-luck pitcher. After signing with the Wild Things at midseason following a year at Loyola Marymount, Kirby started seven games and had an 0-3 record, all while pitching without his glasses.

“That wasn’t by design. I lost my glasses before I came out here last year, which is not a good thing,” Kirby said. “It was fine. The only thing that I struggled with was seeing the signs from the catcher. When I have a glove as a target, it doesn’t matter.

“Then, miraculously, before I left to come back here for spring training this year, I found them. I looked in my old college baseball bag – which is the first place I should have looked — and there were my glasses. They’ve made things a lot easier.”

Wearing the glasses while he pitches this season, Kirby has been dominant and reliable. He credits some of the success to his changeup, which he didn’t utilize much last season because of bicep tendonitis.

Kirby has six quality starts – at least six innings pitched and no more than three earned runs allowed – in his last eight outings and was voted to the West Division all-star team. Kirby, however, missed the game in Quebec City because of spasms in his lower back that caused him to miss a start.

“That was disappointing. It would have been nice to have gone but in the end I understood why I didn’t go,” Kirby said. “I got called into the manager’s office and Tom (Vaeth) started to tell me. I stopped him and said I know what you’re going to say. The worst thing for my back would be sitting on a bus all the way to Quebec.”

Though Kirby was winless a year ago, those who saw him pitch could see clearly that his record was the result of a lack of offensive support. Kirby had a sterling 2.83 ERA, and over a five-start stretch, Washington’s hitters provided him with a total of only four runs. Among those games were a pair of 2-1 losses and a 1-0 setback.

That trend continued this year as Kirby’s four losses include three setbacks to Gateway by scores of 2-0, 1-0 and 4-0.

But in each of those games, Kirby gave his team a chance to win. And he says that’s his primary job.

“The first couple times it happened, I said, ‘That’s baseball.’ It’s happened to me before, way too many times when I was pitching in college. I know hitting is not easy, and I just happened to be facing a guy on the other side who is having a great night.

“I want to win and keep giving my team a chance to win. I don’t want to leave the game, even if it’s 1-0.”

Kirby, like every other player, would like to leave the Frontier League and make it a major league farm system. He says he’s aware of what it is going to take.

“Throw harder,” he says quickly. “That’s not easy to do. Growing up, I wasn’t a throw-as-hard-as-you-can guy. I was learning how to pitch. My last year at East Tennessee State, I was throwing 90-92 (mph). At Loyola Marymount, it was the same.

“When I was in college, I was never the guy who was getting a questionnaire from scouts. I knew my path was going to be indy ball.”

That path led to Washington, where Kirby has been a key player on a Wild Things team that leads the West Division by six games. He can see why he’s having success.

“I’ve learned a lot in this league,” Kirby said. “I learned to trust all of my stuff. It sounds simple. … If I attack the hitters, then I’ll have success.”