McKay ‘unflappable’ in MLB debut

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Brendan McKay made an amazing first impression.

McKay took a perfect game into the sixth inning of his major league debut as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Texas Rangers 5-2 on Saturday.

“It was fun to watch,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Certainly set a pretty high bar for himself. Just the way he carried himself, it was kind of unflappable.”

McKay (1-0), a two-way prospect taken fourth overall in the 2017 draft, didn’t allow a baserunner until Danny Santana flared an opposite-field single to right with one out in the sixth. The lefthander allowed one hit, a walk and struck out three in six innings.

McKay said the best part of the day was “just getting to play baseball.”

“You’re living a dream and doing something that not many people get to do,” McKay said. “To fulfill your life-long dream of playing in the major leagues, it’s awesome.”

A couple dozen family members and friends, including his parents, were among the announced crowd of 16,655.

“He’s got good stuff, and he can execute,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “He looked like a pretty calm guy.”

After walking Shin-Soo Choo with two outs in the sixth, McKay ended his 81-pitch outing by striking out Delino Deshields on three pitches. He walked off the field to a standing ovation.

“It gave (me) chills at the moment,” McKay said.

Avisail Garcia homered for the Rays, who won for the fourth time in 12 games.

Texas had a season-high sixgame winning streak snapped.

Jose Alvarado, who rejoined the Rays on Friday after being gone from the team since June 2 to be with his ailing mother, was one of three relievers who completed a five-hitter. He allowed one run and one hit in the ninth.

The Rays took a 3-0 lead in the second when Joey Wendle had an RBI double and Garcia, mired in an 0-for-17 slide, hit a two-run homer off Adrian Sampson (6-5).

Sampson allowed three runs and five hits in six innings.

Willy Adames and Travis d’Arnaud hit consecutive homers in the seventh off Pete Fairbanks to make it 5-0. Adames has 10 homers, with the first nine coming on the road.

Texas got on the board in the eighth when Asdrubal Cabrera, hitless in his previous 21 at-bats, doubled and later scored on Oliver Drake’s wild pitch.

McKay went a combined 6-0 with a 1.22 ERA (662⁄ innings, nine earned runs) in 13 games between Class AA Montgomery and Class AAA Durham.

The 23-year old made a nifty defensive play in the second when he caught Joey Gallo’s foul ball near third base with the Rays having four defenders in the outfield and three infielders on the first-base side of second.

“I don’t know if it makes any difference, but maybe all our pitchers should be two-way players,” a smiling McKay said.

McKay had also played first base before being limited to DH this season.

McKay is scheduled to pitch again Friday night against the AL East-leading New York Yankees, who have a seven-game lead over the Rays.

Joseph Garnett Jr. / Getty Images Brendan McKay showed why he was the fourth overall draft pick in 2017 during his first career start by carrying a perfect game into the sixth inning before finally allowing a Ranger on base.