McKenzie ready for ‘biggest game’

Triston McKenzie is about to pitch the biggest game of his life — so far — and he is as calm as if he were lacing up his shoes for a stroll in the park.

McKenzie, 11-11 in the regular season, will start Game 2 of the wild-card series with the Tampa Bay Rays on Oct. 8 at Progressive Field with the chance to make it a series sweep. Shane Bieber was masterful in the series opener Oct. 7 at Progressive Field when the Guardians beat the Rays, 2-1.

The Indians/Guardians haven’t won a playoff series since beating the Blue Jays in 2016 to win the American League pennant. The winner of the Guardians-Rays series will meet the Yankees in a best-of-five ALDS beginning Oct. 11.

McKenzie hesitated a moment before recalling the biggest pressure cooker he was in before what awaits him Oct. 8.

“I’d say pitching in the playoffs here in 2020, even though it was in a relief appearance,” he said in a happy Guardians clubhouse. “Before then, maybe pitching in the High-A championship (with Lynchburg) in 2017. That’s probably it.

“To be honest, I don’t remember how I pitched. The minor-league championships don’t mean anything. I’m worried about putting something together tomorrow and trying to follow Shane’s lead. As of now, 108-2022 is going to be the biggest game.”

Tyler Glasnow will start for the Rays. He had Tommy John surgery in June of 2021. He made his first appearance since the surgery when he started against the Guardians on Sept. 29, pitching 3 2/3 innings. He had another three-inning tune-up on Oct. 3 against the Red Sox. Glasnow gave up a solo home run to Guardians third baseman Gabriel Arias (Jose Ramirez was the designated hitter that day) and no runs in the game with Boston.

“It feels good,” Glasnow said in his pregame news conference. “I think (being ready for the playoffs) was always the ultimate goal. I think early on that wasn’t really in the cards and then progression was good and I had a lot of really good people with me, like trainers and coaches and everything, and the timing felt good, so now I’m here ready to pitch in the postseason.”

Glasnow was 5-1 in 2020 and 5-2 in 2021 before the injury ended his season.

Notes

• Guardians manager Terry Francona made the easy and wise decision to have Josh Naylor play first base and use Owen Miller as the DH.

Miller played 80 games at first base and was charged with six errors on 551 chances.

That doesn’t take into account times when he misplayed a ball and wasn’t charged with an error, such as when he failed to scoop the ball out of the dirt to complete a double play.