McKay offers glimpse of bright future in victory
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ST. PETERSBURG -- Expanded rosters in September give younger players an opportunity to make an impact in the big leagues. With the Rays fighting for a playoff position, they’re going to turn to a pair of younger players to give them a boost over the last 20 games of the season.
Brendan McKay, the team’s No. 2 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, is right at the top of that list and the left-hander didn’t disappoint in his first start back with the big league club. After spending the last three weeks in Triple-A Durham working to get his command back, McKay tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings to lead the Rays to a 5-0 win over the Blue Jays on Friday at Tropicana Field.
“I’m really encouraged by Brendan McKay and how he looked,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “An impressive performance by him. The fastball came out of his hand well; threw strikes like we wanted to see.”
In his previous two starts before being optioned to Durham, McKay issued nine walks over six innings. In his last five starts, McKay had an 8.69 ERA and opponents were hitting .344 against the lefty.
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On Friday, McKay looked more like the pitcher who held teams to three earned runs in the first three starts of his career. The southpaw struck out the first two Blue Jays batters of the game and induced a weak ground ball by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to end the opening frame. McKay flashed a 96 mph fastball in the first inning and averaged 93.7 mph with the pitch throughout the night.
“Overall, it was encouraging,” McKay said of his outing. “You are getting back into [what] your normal outings and repertoire would be. Out in the zone and getting ahead and obviously getting a lot of strikeouts and being competitive a lot more is a good sign, too.”
McKay allowed just one hit on Friday -- a triple that appeared to be a routine fly ball, but right fielder Avisail Garcia overran it, causing the ball to drop near the warning track. Blue Jays hitters recorded just two hard-hit balls against McKay on Friday.
After pitching just three innings in his last start with Durham, the Rays were cautious with their top pitching prospect, heading to the bullpen just 3 2/3 innings into his outing. He threw 59 pitches, 36 for strikes and did not issue a walk.
“He pitched right after guys,” said Rays catcher Mike Zunino, who hit his ninth homer of the season in the second inning. “You saw the velo of the fastball early and that led to good finish on all of his pitches and he filled up the strike zone. Whatever little tweaks and adjustments, whether it was mental or physical, I think that’s the guy in this organization that everyone has seen.”
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After McKay allowed a two-out triple in the first inning, the left-hander and the Rays' bullpen combined to retire 22 consecutive Blue Jays hitters before Cole Sulser -- making his Major League debut -- walked Danny Jansen to start the ninth inning. It was the 11th shutout of the season for the Tampa Bay pitching staff.
“What you saw McKay do for us was set the tone,” Zunino said. “I think everybody knows what our bullpen can do. They have done it all year for us.”
As McKay and the rest of the Rays’ pitching staff held the Blue Jays’ offense quiet, the Rays’ offense was able to put together some quality at-bats against Toronto starter Clay Buchholz.
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Garcia opened up the scoring with a one-out RBI double in the first inning to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. In the second, Zunino's two-run home run off Buchholz gave the Rays a 3-0 lead. Tampa Bay improved to 61-20 when scoring first this season.
The Rays have won eight of their last nine games and improved to a season-high 25 games over .500. At 84-59, the Rays are just six wins away from tying last season’s 90-win mark with 19 games remaining. The Rays extended their lead for the top American League Wild Card spot to one game over the A's, with the Indians sitting a half-game behind Oakland for the second spot.
With Tyler Glasnow set to return on Sunday and Blake Snell close to returning from injury, a productive McKay could give the Rays five quality starting pitchers moving forward.
“We’re still optimistic that we’re going to get a couple of these guys back, but in the meantime we got to have somebody pitch,” Cash said. “We got to have somebody get us deep into games or that five-inning mark into games. If [McKay] is pitching like he’s capable of, he can certainly do that.”