While Indians starter
“I think he was calm. His curveball was good, slider was good. Threw some really good changeups,” said catcher
Thursday brought a much different -- and better -- story for McKenzie.\n\nMcKenzie threw first-pitch strikes to 13 of the 21 Royals batters he faced -- not an elite number, but a positive flip from his 2-for-9 performance against Chicago. Of the eight batters he didn’t start off with a strike, only two reached base, and he came back to strike out two others.
After Saturday, McKenzie had said that he needed to do a better job of attacking hitters, and not falling behind in the count is a key aspect of that. With that goal in mind throughout his appearance on Thursday, he delivered.\n\n“Just making sure \\[that\\], as well as attacking the top of the zone, I was attacking the bottom of the zone too,” McKenzie said. “I felt like I gave up a hit early to Merrifield and then that kind of locked me in, and then instead of focusing on trying to strike guys out, \\[I was\\] making sure I let my defense work behind me.\n\n“Even when I fell behind guys, there was a lot more urgency to kind of get back into the count and to kind of let them put the bat on the ball. I feel like there was some situations where I was behind in the count and they kind of bailed me out.”
Behind McKenzie, the Indians outplayed the Royals from start to finish. Rivera, shortstop