News and Notes: McKenzie Struggles with Strike Zone and Canzone

In the photo above, we notice Triston McKenzie is a prophet. “I’m going to give up four runs in the second and that will doom us tonight.”

The Guardians lost 5-4 to the Mariners after Walsh Jesuit (a private school just north of where I live here in Cuyahoga Falls) product Dominic Canzone hit a three-run homer off of the wild Triston McKenzie in the 2nd inning. Plenty of folks on social media were freaking out about McKenzie’s fastball which averaged around 90 mph, but the Guardians and McKenzie were upbeat about his 2024 debut after the game, with McKenzie saying he “felt good.” His average fastball was down 1.4 mph from his career average, but maybe he’s still getting built back up after his injury. I think I’d be more concerned about his curveball which was down 1 inch of vertical break and 2 inches of horizontal break. McKenzie can be effective with lower velocity on his fastball but he needs the slider and curveball to be sharp if so.

It’s too early in the season to say that McKenzie is cooked or still hurt or doomed. But, it’s certainly fair to note that given his elbow injury last fall, the Guardians shouldn’t be COUNTING on him to be dominant or healthy this season. I guess Tyler Beede or Ben Lively will have to stretch back out in order to provide any kind of depth, there, with Joey Cantillo out at least eight weeks with a hamstring strain. Yikes.

The Guardians offense and bullpen hung in there. They needed more than two hits combined from Andres Gimenez, Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor to pull this comeback off, but Naylor swung at a first pitch slider to ground out in the top of the third to end a two-run rally when the Guardians had a chance to really put Mariners starter Emerson Hancock away. In the expected batting average battle, the Guardians were .381 to the Mariners .312 as guys were hitting the ball hard and getting robbed all night. Josh Naylor hit a 438 foot SOLO home run

and Tyler Freeman hit a 392 foot SOLO home run

...and so the sequencing gods were clearly not on Cleveland’s side last night. Bo Naylor also went 2 for 3 with a walk, bouncing back from his game to forget on Sunday. Freeman and Steven Kwan (the latter via relay from Ramirez) both threw out runners at the plate.

The Guardians bullpen was another bright spot, with a scoreless inning and a thirds from the wild Nick Sandlin and the dominant Cade Smith (striking out three), and scoreless innings each from Hunter Gaddis and Tyler Beede (striking out two).

There are no such thing as moral victories, but, overall, I was encouraged by this Guardians’ team’s first test against a real baseball team. Let’s see if their ace can put an end to the two-game losing streak and if their offense can figure out how to plate some runs against a great pitcher in Luis Castillo tonight.

Paul Hoynes wrote about the connection between salsa music and Andres Gimenez’s elite defense.

The Athletic’s Zack Meisel wrote about ten Guardians he’s most looking forward to seeing in 2024 (Kyle Manzardo and Chase DeLauter made the list).

Meanwhile, Oregon State’s Travis Bazzana, competing for number one in the MLB draft status, again went deep with a prodigious blast last night:

For everyone reading this in Ohio today, stay safe in the severe weather coming our way!