Taylor Hearn is in his third season with the Texas Rangers and the left-handed pitcher has already made more appearances this season than the last two combined.
Hearn is starting to adjust in the league as a pitcher and he wants to help make an impact for the Rangers anyway he can.
Congratulations Ranger Reliever Taylor Hearn on earning his first win today! Hearn threw 2 innings allowing no runs or hits as the #Rangers beat the #Twins in extras. https://t.co/ZtzgxQptVB
Typically, Hearn is a bullpen guy, who comes in later in the game and pitches anywhere from one to two innings. At times he may be asked to go longer.
But recently, he did something for the first time this season, starting a game on the mound.
In his first start of the season, Hearn did not have the outing that he envisioned.
On June 22, 2021, he took the mound against the Oakland Athletics. It was a quick outing for Hearn as he only threw 0.2 innings. He gave up four runs on two hits and walked three.
Now Hearn had made 22 appearances before that, but they all were out of the bullpen. So he quickly had to make an adjustment in preparation for his first start of the year.
He walked the first batter he faced on four straight pitches and then gave up a home run to the second batter he faced.
So you see, it was one of those nights for Hearn. But that’s the game and it happens. It’s all about how you bounce back from adversity.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward did not waste any time pulling Hearn out of the game.
“He just didn’t have good command,” Woodward told The Dallas Morning News. “He was all over the place.”
Going into the game, Woodward was not expecting Hearn to pitch more than a few innings or even solidify himself as a starter. Hearn only made one other start during his career and that came in 2019. It was his major league debut and he only recorded one out before he was pulled.
So for Hearn, it seems like coming out of the bullpen is more of his thing. But who knows, he may get another opportunity to start during the season and he might have a totally different outing.
June has not been a good month for the 26-year-old on the mound as he finished the month with a 9.58 ERA in seven appearances.
But in May, the 26-year-old was an effective reliever out of the bullpen. He made eight appearances during the month and had one game where he allowed the opposing team to score.
He finished May with a 1.93 ERA through 14 innings of work and picked up two wins. Hearn has a 2-2 record through 23 games and an ERA of 5.75 with 42 strikeouts. He had the streets of Arlington buzzing.
The young phenom returns from the minors to strike out a Cleveland Indians record 8 batters in a row this past weekend. Does anybody still doubt that he belongs in the league?
If you love pitching, there was an exciting matchup on Saturday night in Seattle between two MLBbros who are the future of baseball in a position that is not dominated by “The Culture.”
The Cleveland Indians featured their 23-year-old right-hander Triston “T Eazy” McKenzie and the Seattle Mariners, who won the game 7-3, countered with another melanated mound marauder in southpaw Justus “Topsheff” Sheffield.
Both pitchers started in the Indians organization and are important parts of their respective rotations this season and have shown signs of brilliance and also laid some stinkers, which is a natural progression for young arms. Sheffield is just 25.
"See you in the big leagues!"
Both Triston McKenzie and Justus Sheffield got their starts in the @Indians farm system, and now they're pitching opposite of each other tonight.#OurCLEpic.twitter.com/npu0Y81eHY
— Bally Sports Cleveland (@BallySportsCLE) May 16, 2021
Sheffield got the best of McKenzie in this matchup as Triston surrendered five runs in four innings and left trailing 5-0. He did strike out six batters which suggests that he had good stuff but was just missing on certain pitches.
Justus Sheffield hailing from Tullahoma, TN has baseball DNA in the blood. He is the brother of Jordan Sheffield, a right-handed pitcher with the Colorado Rockies, and is also the cousin to former MLB player Tony Sheffield.
He was in command through six innings against the Cleveland Indians lineup, allowing just two runs on five hits and striking out two.
T-Eazy Is On The Come Up
Triston is the fifth starter on what is arguably one of the best pitching rotations in baseball. The Brooklyn, NY native was drafted by the Indians in 2015. He was deemed one of the best pitching prospects by MLB Pipeline in 2019 but was unable to pitch that season due to injury.
McKenzie stands at 6’5″ 170 pounds and generated a lot of buzz in his major league debut in 2020 against the Detroit Tigers, striking out 10 batters in his first six innings.
He entered Cleveland’s record books with the second-most strikeouts in his first major league start. He finished the shortened and unprecedented 2020 MLB season with a record of 2-1 with a 3.24 ERA over 33.1 innings pitched.
This season, T Eazy is off to a slow start, with an ERA close to five. The electric stuff is there, he’s just got to learn how to put it all together. How to pitch.
He made one bad pitch to Dylan Moore in the fourth inning on Saturday, which resulted in a three-run homer.
He met a similar fate against the Chicago White Sox on May 1st, 2021. McKenzie struck out six batters and gave up only one hit, the one hit was a Grand Slam to Tim Anderson. McKenzie was pulled after two innings after he threw 57 pitches and walked four.
Justus Sheffield Puts The Clamps On Cleveland
Sheffield was the 31st pick in the first round, of the Cleveland Indians in 2015, one year before Triston McKenzie was drafted by the same organization. Justus spent time in the Yankees organization for a season but has found a home with the Seattle Mariners.
The 25-year-old stands at 5’10”, and weighs 195 lbs. He is the third man in a six-man pitching rotation that features another black hurler, Justin Dunn.
Justus had a successful rookie campaign in 2020 finishing 4-3, with a 3.58 ERA over 55.1 innings pitched. Seattle is excited about their pitcher who is finding his stride after Covid ravaged the 2020 season and hampered the development of many major leaguers.
Justus came into the season with some personal goals for the 2021 season. The goals for Topsheff were perfecting his changeup and to last six innings of every start, a goal that he reached six times out of 10 outings in 2020.
He reached that goal on Saturday night.
Baseball is known for its stats and two black starting pitchers facing each other is a rare one indeed. This isn’t the last time these two bruthas will clash. Tristan and Justus will once again have the opportunity to make the ancestors proud by putting on a show and allowing the world to see what these Black arms can do.
I can assure you that little Black boys will watch tonight’s game and see “Black Excellence” on display and know that one day, they can be a pitcher in Major League Baseball too.
Amir Garrett won’t be intimidating any batter from the mound in the here and now.
Amir, the Cincinnati Reds’ intimidating closer, will begin to serve a five-game suspension Tuesday for his role in a bench-clearing incident in a recent game against the Chicago Cubs.
He finally found his groove after struggling to begin the season and will look to continue his strong pitching once he returns.
Batters see a monster when they look up at a 6-foot-6 left-handed reliever toeing the rubber in the late innings. He throws flames and will let you know how he feels after getting you out every time. A few times in his career, teams have taken exception to this, but Garrett has never been the type to back down.
This was the case during a game a few weeks ago against the Cubs. It was a 3-2 game in the top of the eighth when he struck out Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo.
Garrett then began pounding his chest and yelling at Rizzo as well as the Cubs’ dugout: I am not the best at reading lips and won’t try this time, but whatever he said the Cubs took extreme exception to it. Their entire team came out of the dugout and both benches emptied.
No punches were thrown, and although Cubs second baseman Javier Baez was the first one out of the dugout and could be seen on camera flipping the bird in Garrett’s direction, Garrett was the only player from each team to be suspended. Baez was only given a fine.
His original suspension was scheduled for seven games but after appealing it Major League Baseball decided to reduce it to just five games.
Five games, without even a punch being thrown, does seem a little excessive but this is not Garrett’s first rodeo when it comes to being involved in a benches-clearing incident.
We have to flashback to July 2019 in a game between Garrett’s Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates. There was obvious animosity in the air between both teams as a reliever was ejected just an inning earlier for hitting a batter. Garrett was on the mound talking with his catcher and pitching coach during the ninth inning of a blowout game. Garrett, who heard chirping from the Pirates dugout, finally had heard enough. He began going towards their dugout and once he crossed the third base line all hell broke loose.
Garrett was a lone soldier against the entire Pittsburg roster but that didn’t faze him. He neared their dugout and connected a left hook to a Pirate player as both teams would then begin to scuffle.
Garrett was remorseful after the situation. “When I see kids, I don’t want to set that kind of example,” Garrett told MLB.com. “That’s not the kind of person I am. I don’t condone violence. I don’t like for stuff like that to happen and for kids to be amazed by stuff like that and think it’s cool- because it’s not.” He would serve an eight-game suspension.
The no-nonsense mindset of Garrett is sort of a throwback to the attitude of Hall of Famer Lee Smith, who is third all-time with 478 saves during his 18-year career. Similar to Garrett, Smith stood 6-foot-6, weighed 265 pounds and was one of the most respected and feared pitchers in the game during his time.
“Always being positive, he had a lot of confidence in himself and was just a big guy that was overpowering and ahead of the game,” said Patrick Mahomes, Sr., when speaking on Smith getting into the Hall of Fame.
Garrett got off to a slow start this season but has seemed to find his stride in his last few appearances. In his last four games, he has thrown four innings allowing two hits, no runs, two walks and struck out six batters.
He’ll have some time to relax and unwind during this mini-break he is getting. But we need Garrett back on the mound as soon as possible. He brings a flair and charisma to the mound that we are not used to seeing in baseball and the sport needs more of it.
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