ALDS: Guardians Triston McKenzie Will Start Game 3 Against Yankees

Like McKenzie, CC Sabathia began his career in Cleveland as a young, Black pitcher. Sabathia, who retired with the Yankees after the 2019 season, was a southpaw with a different physique than the 6-foot-5, 165-pound McKenzie, but in him McKenzie still found a hurler he could look up to.

“I think representation as a young Black pitcher, as a young Black baseball player, seeing him play at the highest level and seeing him dominate at the highest level, is something that you obviously try and emulate,” McKenzie said. “You look at the guys who are the best. And even though he’s left-handed, he’s someone that I saw more of myself in than a lot of other pitchers at the time.”

McKenzie’s fondness for Sabathia eventually turned to friendship after the two met last summer.

Still a rookie at the time, McKenzie went into the encounter ready to profess his fandom to Sabathia, a former Cy Young Award winner and a member of the 3,000-strikeout club. But the introduction took a “surreal” turn when Sabathia echoed those sentiments toward McKenzie.

“One of the first words out of his mouth were like, ‘Hey, Triston, I’m a big fan of you,’” McKenzie recalled. “It was, like, mind-blowing for me. I don’t even know how to explain that.”

Now McKenzie refers to Sabathia as his “cuz,” one who returned to Cleveland to watch his mentee’s first playoff start on Oct. 8. McKenzie did his best impression of a vintage Sabathia that day, throwing six scoreless innings and striking out eight. The performance came in a 15-inning, 1-0 wild-card round-winning victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/sports/baseball/triston-mckenzie-guardians-alds.html