INSIDE THE START: Triston McKenzie Strikes out Eight Over 7.2 Innings for Cleveland Guardians in 2-1 Loss
Since watching him come up through the minors, baseball fans have seen many glimpses of just how good Triston McKenzie can be.
The tall righty has turned things around thus far in 2022 after a tough 2021 season that saw him post a 4.95 ERA and a 4.70 FIP.
Things have definitely changed for the better in the early part of the 2022 as heading into Sunday's start, McKenzie had a 2.70 ERA with a 3.68 FIP and a 140 ERA+, all three of which are career-highs at the moment.
He put in another fantastic effort against the Detroit Tigers on Sunday, striking out eight over 7.1 innings of work and allowing just two earned runs.
Unfortunately for McKenzie, the Guardians offense struggled, scoring just one run as they went on to lose, 2-1.
Let's take a closer look at his start to see just what was working well for him on the day. As you can see with the video above, his curve was his most effective pitch on the day.
Of his 17 curves thrown, seven (41 percent) were called strikes or whiffs. He got 12 swings-and-misses on the day of the 48 swings that Tigers hitters took.
McKenzie reached as high as 93.7 MPH on his fastball, sitting around 92 on the day, but that curve was the real difference-maker.
The vertical break on it was hitting in the 50-inch range or so, which is absolutely astounding and shows that he should be using it slightly more than his 19 percent usage rate on Sunday.
With the loss, Cleveland falls to 19-24 on the season and McKenzie's ERA fell as well to 2.65. There's a lot to like about his progress so far in 2022 and if he's clicking, that's an incredible sign for the Guardians moving forward.
