McCarty in fine form in Captains victory

This time, Captains starting pitcher Kirk McCarty was not the toughluck loser.

The 22-year-old lefthander was a most impressive winner on July 7, blanking the West Michigan Whitecaps on two hits over 6 1/3 innings as the Captains posted a 3-0 victory at Classic Park.

McCarty (2-8, 4.83 ERA) notched a career-high 11 strikeouts and yielded one walk.

He threw 84 pitches, 60 for strikes, in his second straight quality start.

“I had a good feel the whole game,” McCarty said after getting in the win column for the first time sine May 2.

In his previous start, at home against the Dayton Dragons on July 2, McCarty yielded one run on four hits in seven innings. He had the misfortune of running up against Dayton righthander Hunter Greene on a night when the 18-yearold right-hander was in superb ESPN

allsportscleveland.net; captainsbaseball. com form. Greene, taken by the Cincinnati Reds with the second overall pick in the first round of the 2017 draft, limited the Captains to two hits in seven innings that night.

West Michigan starter and eventual loser Tom de Blok (0-2, 4.32 ERA) was pretty good against the Captains, surrendering three runs on eight hits in six innings.

He wasn’t nearly as sharp as McCarty, who has pitched much better than his record would indicate since the end of May.

“It isn’t just the starts, it’s the days in between, putting in the work and figuring out who I want to be,” McCarty said.

Selected by the Indians in the seventh round of the 2017 draft out of Southern Mississippi, McCarty uses a pitch mix of fastball, slider, curve and change-up.

In 17 starts covering 87 2/3 innings, he has a Midwest League-high 99 strikeouts.

“I want to be the best I can be and see where that takes me,” McCarty said.

The Captains gave McCarty all the runs he needed in the early going. Oscar Gonzales had an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning. Todd Isaacs and Jesse Berardi had RBI singles in the bottom of the second inning. Relievers Robert Broom and Nick Sandlin, both products of the 2018 draft, preserved the Captains’ third shutout of the season.

Broom, a 10th round pick out of Mercer (Ga.) University, was making his first appearance for the Captains after being promoted on July 6 from the rookieleague Arizona Indians. He limited the Whitecaps to one hit in 1 2/3 innings.

Sandlin, the secondround pick, was McCarty’s teammate at Southern Mississippi for two seasons. He worked a scoreless top of the ninth to earn his first save.

McCarty