Triston McKenzie Introduces Himself To The Baseball World This Postseason | Get Ready For Dr. K Vibes From Dr. Sticks

Triston McKenzie really established himself this season for the Cleveland Guardians. He became one of the top starters in Cleveland’s rotation. McKenzie finished the regular season with a 11-11 record, a 2.96 ERA, and 190 strikeouts. He was third on the team in wins and second in strikeouts.

Now McKenzie gets to show us what he can do in the postseason. Believe it or not, this won’t be his first postseason appearance either.

Back in 2020, Cleveland took on the New York Yankees in the Wild Card round. McKenzie made an appearance during Game 2, going 1.2 innings and giving up two runs on one hit and a home run as the Yankees won 10-9.

That was his only appearance of the season. Fast forward to this year and he’ll be making the start in Game Two against the Tampa Bay Rays. And one thing to take note of is how well McKenzie performed in his final start of the regular season against the Kansas City Royals.

He went five innings, giving up one run with four strikeouts. McKenzie used that game as preparation for the postseason.

“I tried to use tonight as a tester,” McKenzie said in an article from mlb.com. “There were a lot of nerves for everybody even moving into this last stretch of games before the playoffs. I was just trying to get my mind right for the playoffs and let myself know it was just another game.”

This will be a big moment in McKenzie’s career. He will have a chance to put his team in a position to advance to the divisional round of the playoffs and get them one step closer to the World Series. We have had the pleasure of witnessing this MLBbro evolve over the last few seasons, and he’s made improvements each year.

“Every year I prove to myself that I can compete at this level and I can compete day in and day out,” McKenzie said. “This year was a testament to that for me.”

There’s no doubt that McKenzie has what it takes to dominate against the Rays. His intensity will be on a new level now that the postseason is here and he will definitely be slinging that rock and making it hard for the Rays offense to have success against him.