A Near Perfect Weekend

Indians hurler Triston McKenzie showed a glimpse of the future Sunday when he threw nearly a perfect game at Comerica Park in Detroit. McKenzie, who has showed signs of being a future ace, threw a one-hitter as the Indians dominated the Tigers to win the weekend series. Read all about how McKenzie shut down Detroit in the win.

The Cleveland Indians played spoiler in Detroit over the weekend in more ways than one. Miguel Cabrera was seeking his 500th career home run and drew large crowds of hopefuls in for the Tigers.

However, the Tribe would hold Miggy at 499 and while fans left disappointed, the Cleveland clubhouse celebrated taking two out of three and winning the series, improving its record to 57-59.

Despite missing out on a historic game on the offensive side of the ball, one Cleveland pitcher did put on a show on Sunday which gleamed some light on an otherwise tough second half of the season.

Triston McKenzie was on the mound for the Tribe and had a comfortable six-spot by the time he was throwing in the bottom of the second. The team would tack on five more in the top of the third which were the only runs scored in the game for a 11-0 victory for Cleveland.

The 24-year old righty, affectionately known as Sticks, put all of baseball on watch as the game inched on into the later innings.

McKenzie had retired 23-straight batters in order before we watched it come to an end in the 8th.

Harold Castro of the Tigers broke up the perfect game bid with two outs in the 8th with a single to right. McKenzie, not breaking composure, would go on to strike out Willi Castro next to end the inning.

McKenzie ended the game with a final line of 8.0 IP, 1 H, 11 Ks, 0 BB.

Even with a lively crowd, which would stand and cheer each time Cabrea came to the dish, McKenzie was able to put on a career performance and one of the most dominant ones we've seen in a Cleveland uniform in some time. Not to mention he earned two of his 11 strikeouts against Cabrera himself under those circumstances.

McKenzie's starts have certainly been a mixed bag, but since returning from his stint back in Triple-A his control has been much better as we saw on full display Sunday afternoon.

In July, McKenzie's line after four starts was at 21.0 IP, 18 H, 6 BB, and 20 Ks allowing 13 runs which was still an improvement from months prior. His ERA of 5.57 and WHIP of 1.14 was a vast difference from May (as he only pitched one game in June).

Looking at August, McKenzie has already logged 21 innings in three starts. This month's line is at 21.0 IP, 10 H, 1 BB, and 20 Ks while allowing five runs. His ERA for the month is at 2.14 along with an unreal WHIP of 0.52 thanks largely to Sunday's game.

Of course, not every outing is going to be as pristine as that one, but it would appear that Sticks has reclaimed his stuff — and at least for Sunday's start, that stuff was near perfect.