Kinney in position to earn Giants call-up Former Bangor star excelling in Triple-A

Former Bangor High School pitching standout Matt Kinney is making a late run to earn a September call-up to the San Francisco Giants.

The 6-foot-5, 230-pound righthander leads the Pacific Coast League with 12 victories this season for the Class AAA Fresno (Calif.) Grizzlies heading into his scheduled start Thursday night at Salt Lake City, Utah, against Bartolo Colon and the Salt Lake Bees.

Colon is making a rehab start as he works to recover from a sore right elbow that forced the Los Angeles Angels to place him on the disabled list in late May.

Thursday night’s game likely will be Kinney’s last Triple A start of the summer, as PCL season ends on Labor Day. At 74-65 the Grizzlies have the fifth-best record in the 20-team, four-division league, but they reside in third place in their division, six games behind Sacramento (Oakland A’s affiliate) and one game behind second-place Tuscon (Arizona Diamondbacks). Only the division winners advance to postseason play.

Kinney, meanwhile, is 12-9 with a 3.94 earned run average while helping Fresno secure its first winning season since 1999.

With a 5-2 victory over Sacramento in his most recent outing he tied a franchise record with wins in each of his last six starts. Even more, Kinney has recorded wins in each of his last eight appearances, one a victory in relief, during a streak that began in mid-July.

The 30-year-old Kinney has allowed 159 hits in 150 2/3 innings for Fresno, with 135 strikeouts and 34 walks while allowing opposing hitters to compile a .268 batting average against him.

Kinney also is batting .250 this season, with eight hits in 32 at-bats including two doubles and five RBIs. The PCL features affiliates of both American League and National League teams, so the designated hitter rule applies when Fresno visits AL affiliates.

Should Kinney be called up by the Giants when rosters are expanded on Sept. 1, it would mark his first major league action since 2005, when the former sixth-round draft choice of the Boston Red Sox compiled a 2-0 record in five appearances for San Francisco.

Kinney has a 19-27 record with a 5.29 ERA in five major league seasons with the Giants, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Minnesota, for whom he made his major league debut in 2000.

His best season came for Milwaukee in 2003, when he went 10-13 with a 5.19 ERA in 31 starts.

On April 12, 2004, while still pitching for the Brewers, Kinney yielded Barry Bonds’ 660th career home run into McCovey Cove in San Francisco, a blast that enabled Bonds to tie his godfather, Willie Mays, for third place on the all-time list.

Bonds hit No. 661 to move into sole possession of third place the next day.