McKenzie Flashes as Bradley Smashes Tribe to Second Straight Walk-Off Win
By: Sean Fitzgerald
After snapping a nine-game losing streak last night on a Franmil Reyes walk-off blast, The Cleveland Indians looked to move two games above .500 against a reeling Kansas City Royals team that had lost 10 straight road contests entering Friday night.
The 21,395 fans at Progressive Field who came for fireworks also watched a great-yet-unexpected pitching battle that turned into Cleveland walking it off on the ninth and beating the Royals 2-1.
Triston McKenzie, freshly recalled from Columbus for his first big league action since June 12, struck out the side in the first frame, with All-Star catcher Salvador Perez caught looking for the third out.
The Royals countered with righty Brad Keller. Keller ended up with two swinging strikeouts and inducing a Jose Ramirez grounder into the shift for the third out of his start.
Keller began to unravel in the third, issuing two straight walks in the bottom of the second to Franmil Reyes and Bobby Bradley. Reyes tagged up and advanced to third on a long fly ball to left by Oscar Mercado before Bradley Zimmer knocked him in with an opposite field base knock.
McKenzie ran into some trouble in the third, allowing a single and a walk with one out with the top of the Royals lineup due up. Fortunately for the young righty, he got a fly ball and a groundout to escape the jam.
The two sides couldn’t manage another hit from the third inning on until Mercado got a base knock off Keller in the seventh and stole second on a Zimmer check-swing strikeout. Mercado was left stranded after Austin Hedges hit a hard line out to right.
McKenzie dazzled in his return to The Show, tossing seven clean innings, giving up a single hit and a walk while getting nine Royals batters to go down on strikes. He threw 85 pitches with 57 strikes.
With Emmanuel Clase coming on in the eighth, he gave up a towering solo blast to Jorge Soler to knot the game at one-apiece. He allowed one more hit before finishing off Whit Merrifield to end his outing.
Royals Manager Mike Matheny surprisingly left Keller in and paid for it, with Daniel Johnson knocking a long bloop single and advancing to second on an overthrow by Michael A. Taylor, snapping an 0-for-13 skid.
Cesar Hernandez also got a base knock before a bizarre and confusing sequence of events that led to Johnson and Hernandez both being called out at third and Terry Francona getting tossed out of the ballgame. Amed Rosario advanced to second on the play.
After walking Jose Ramirez, Keller’s night finally came to an end. He went 7 2/3 innings, serving up four hits and nine strikeouts while only allowing one run to score. Keller tossed 114 pitches, 67 of them strikes but issued four walks.
Jake Brentz managed to strike out Reyes to keep the game tied entering the ninth.
James Karinchak injected further unease into the crowd with a leadoff double to Andrew Benintendi, who was lifted for pinch runner Jarrod Dyson.
With Dyson on third and two down, Karinchak got O’Hearn on a check swing for the third out with an amped up crowd waiting for Friday night fireworks.
And Bobby Bradley delivered them with a walk-off solo blast to the center field seats, sending the crowd into an absolute frenzy and the second straight walk-off win for the Tribe.
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La Mole on the loose
Franmil Reyes has been on an absolute tear at the plate since being activated last Friday against the Houston Astros. In the first five games back after going down with an oblique injury, Reyes has slashed .381/.409/.857 with a double, three round trippers, nine RBI and four runs scored.
He’s also hit home runs in three straight contests, matching two prior streaks from August 24-27, 2019 with the Tribe and May 28-30 as a member of the San Diego Padres.
Finally! Some good pitching
Triston McKenzie gave the Indians what they needed and expected from him out of Spring Training: good, reliable pitching. McKenzie made it through a career high seven innings. His previous best mark for longest outing was six innings, which he managed to do twice in 2020.
McKenzie’s start was just the second time in Cleveland’s 26 games one of their starters got through six innings.
Bad timing
Jorge Soler’s 427-foot blast in the eighth off Emmanuel Clase was something new for the young flamethrower in 2021. It was the first home run that Clase has given up all season.
Walk-off counter
The back-to-back walk-offs gave the Indians seven on the year. The last time Tribe had consecutive walk-off victories was back on September 22 and 23, 2020.
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Sean Fitzgerald is a Kent State graduate and the press box correspondent for Mark One Sports and CLE TribeCast. Follow him on Twitter @fitzonsportsbsr.
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