McKenzie makes easy work of Royals

KANSAS CITY -- Adversity is never easy, and the struggles that Indians starter Triston McKenzie went through at the beginning of the season would’ve been enough to make the strongest-minded athletes start to have some doubts. But instead of being frustrated with how more than half of his season went, McKenzie is thankful.

“I feel like the struggles I had early on allowed me to be the pitcher I’ve been for the last couple of starts,” McKenzie said, “and hopefully I just keep improving.”

McKenzie showed no signs of regressing against the Royals. He allowed one run on just two hits through six innings in the Indians’ 4-2 victory at Kauffman Stadium Thursday night. He was removed after 76 pitches, as Cleveland’s acting manager DeMarlo Hale noted he’d be keeping a closer eye on McKenzie’s pitch count due to his recent arm fatigue.

But after a week off to rest his arm, McKenzie didn’t miss a beat. His pitching line was as impressive as the last few outings, but he didn’t get off to as strong of a start as he’s been used to. He said that he felt the game start to speed up on him again, as he was called for a balk in the second inning and immediately proceeded to give up an RBI single to Hunter Dozier to give the Royals an early lead.

This feeling was all too familiar for McKenzie, who battled this for weeks at the beginning of the year. But the 24-year-old has grown from those experiences and knew how to properly handle the situation this time around.

“I feel like the biggest thing has been being able to recognize it early and being able to step off the mound and take a break,” McKenzie said. “It was more about kind of stepping off the mound, relaxing a little bit and making sure I was getting on the same page as [backstop Ryan] Lavarnway and just executing the pitches.”

From there, McKenzie got right back into his late-season groove. The velocity ticked up on all of his pitches and each of the three -- the heater, slider and curveball -- induced a trio of whiffs. Of the 16 total sliders he threw, three resulted in whiffs and four were called for strikes.

“I think he’s getting better, too,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “The slider’s certainly a pitch that’s improved, just going from what the guys were saying, not picking up a lot of spin. It has good break. And he’s been effective at the top of the zone, which tells you that his spin is helping him. He’s executing. But he’s mixing it up, too. He’s using the curveball well and staying ahead in counts and not giving a lot of free passes.”

This success has become commonplace for McKenzie. Since he was recalled from Triple-A Columbus in July, he’s pitched to a 1.85 ERA (seven earned runs in 34 innings), permitting a mere five hits in his last 21 frames. He’s retired 63 of 71 batters over his last three starts -- a stretch in which he’s 3-0 with a 0.86 ERA and 25 strikeouts (10.7 strikeouts per nine innings).

“Oh he's been incredible,” said Indians infielder Owen Miller, who launched the deciding three-run homer Thursday. “[There are] a lot of confusing looks [of opposing hitters] going back into the dugout. So it's been pretty cool to just watch him put everything together and really compete. It just seems like when he has his A-game and his stuff is on, he's really, really efficient and just simply gets outs.”

And even his quick break didn’t interfere with his improved control, allowing just one walk against the Royals. In his first 11 games (10 starts) of the season, he permitted 39 walks in 42 1/3 frames. In his last nine starts, he’s walked nine batters in 55 innings.

“I felt like as of late, I’ve been able to turn the page a little more quickly and make sure I execute pitches,” McKenzie said, “especially when I make bad pitches.”

The Indians will continue to strictly follow McKenzie’s pitch counts throughout the rest of the season, as his innings total reached 118 2/3 combined between the Majors and Triple-A this year. The only time in his career he’s thrown more innings was 143 in High-A in 2017. Since then, he’s had a handful of injuries that the team is trying to prevent from occurring again. But if you ask McKenzie, he doesn’t have an innings limit. He’s just focused on helping his team win as many games as possible before the 2021 regular season comes to an end.

“I think he's starting to understand that there's work to be done and that he has to continue to have a certain mindset and approach and continue to grow,” Hale said. “He's just really starting to grow into a Major League pitcher and being consistent.”