Triston McKenzie enters historic ground with star debut against Tigers

Two pitchers in the history of Cleveland Indians have debuted with 10-or-more strikeouts. Luis Tiant and his career 54.8 fWAR over a brilliant 18-year career did so when he made his debut in 1964, and 23-year-old Triston McKenzie did it last night.

McKenzie fulfilled a prophecy predicted by Todd Isaacs Jr. on Tuesday 10 Tigers bosses in his debut and in the process saw each worthy of his hype. The big right-hander had a few error spots, which you would expect from a debut, but he also showed a higher speed than ever before and a change and slider that no one outside Eastlake, Ohio could be sure he had.

We’ll get to McKenzie’s signature fastball curveball in a minute, but let’s start with those new pitches.

Before the game, assistant pitching coach Ruben Niebla said McKenzie had developed a slider in the year-plus since being on a pitching mound in a real game. He also said he was working on making his change in time “serviceable”. It is the smallest of sample sizes, but so far it seems like it has paid off.

McKenzie threw the switch nine times and the slider seven times. Combined, they induced four of his 17 whiffs at night and only the change was put into play. Two of the four times that Tigers boss put the change in the field came in the first inning, and both were weakly hit for easy outs. One substitution, in the fourth inning, was a clearly misplaced ball over the heart of the plate that smashed Willi Castro in front of a home team – we’ll chalk that up to a learning experience.

Despite not repeating herself in an official baseball game in almost two years, McKenzie came out without fear. He started the game with eight straight strikes, pumping his fastball eight times in that first frame and his new-look change three times. Adrenaline may have played a part in his speed 96 in the first few innings, but once he got into a groove, he easily sat 94-95 (and spiked back to 96 in his last few at-bats). Combined with the extension of his massive arms, he can easily work this speed out for him, especially if he locates the fastball as well as he does.

We also got a look at his curveball, which was hit 18 times and hit the wicket twice. It was not yet fully used as an outfield – instead, his fastball accounted for nine of his strike-three calls (seven whiffs, two named), and his move resulted in a swinging third strike in the first inning.

Despite all the nerves and limbs he has to control, McKenzie repeats his delivery well through his six innings of work:

If he is ever going to do it with a heavy fastball-curveball combo, this is essential. And so far he has nailed it.

McKenzie is also endowed with one of those fabulous “up-and-coming” fastballs, where the release point and high spinning speed make it look like his four-seamer is defying gravity and actually getting up when it hits the plate. It made McKenzie elevate his fastball to a mystifying degree, batting averages and hiding helmets like they were nothing.

Surprisingly, last night’s Indian attacks decided to support their starting pitcher. It took a while, but once Domingo Santana doubled a trio of runs at home in the sixth inning, the runs kept coming. The top third of the lineup, which has been a big letdown most of the year, combined to go 7-for-12 at night. Francisco Lindor and César Hernández doubled each, while José Ramírez took a walk and grabbed a 0-for-20 streak with his first hit since August 15th.

Some potential news about injuries came before and during the game. Sandy Alomar revealed that José Ramírez apparently suffered a knee injury in the pre-game media session, and Delino DeShields Jr. which turned out to be tweaking what goes into a flyball. He was replaced by Greg Allen, who got a hit in two at-bats.

Nick Wittgren, James Karinchak, and Adam Cimber combined to keep the Tigers scoreless in the last three frames, and Triston McKenzie made his first start as the winner.