Guardians’ Mckenzie allows 10 home runs in June
CLEVELAND — Triston Mckenzie knows his Achilles heel.
The 24-year-old Guardians righthander gave up his ninth and 10th home runs this month and ran his season total to 16 in Monday's 11-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins.
But manager Terry Francona doesn't find those numbers particularly alarming.
“I don't think he has issues,” Francona said. “On some of the days he's given up runs, he's given up two home runs in seven innings, we'll take that.
“I think it's probably a little different every time out. In the past, he's given up some solos, which isn't the worst thing in the world when you're not giving up other runs.”
To Francona's point, 12 of the 16 home runs Mckenzie has allowed this season have been solos.
“Solo homers are OK because it's one run,” Mckenzie said. “But when you allow those to kind of compound and you give up hits or you walk guys beforehand and one-run home runs turn into two- or three-run home runs, that's when they really change the game.”
Last season in 25 games (24 starts), Mckenzie allowed 21 home runs in 120 innings. This season, he's pitched 80 1/3 innings.
Ramirez leads AL third baseman in All-star voting
Guardians MVP candidate Jose Ramirez leads American League third basemen in voting for the 2022 Allstar Game. In totals released by MLB, Ramirez (1,219,704) was ahead of Boston's Rafael Devers (1,185,906) by over 30,000 votes. Ramirez has been a starter in three of his previous four Allstar appearances.
Second baseman Andres Gimenez (819,163) was third at his position behind Houston's Jose Altuve (1,156,474) and Toronto's Santiago Espinal (943,125). Gimenez had drawn nearly 2,000 votes closer to Espinal since the previous update.
Phase 1 of the voting closes Thursday at 2 p.m., with the top two players at each position advancing to the next phase of voting to determine the game's starters.