Jun 29, 2019 4 min read

Brendan McKay made an amazing first impression.

McKay took a perfect game into the sixth inning of his major league debut and 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 left-hander 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.

Baltimore 13, Cleveland 0: Andrew Cashner threw seven innings of three-hit ball, Renato Nunez had two of Baltimore’s four home runs and the Orioles clinched their first series win since April with a 13-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

Anthony Santander etched his way into Camden Yards’ history when he hit the 100th home run, and 45th by an Oriole, to land on Eutaw Street since the stadium opened on April 6, 1992.

Chance Sisco also homered for Baltimore, which has outscored Cleveland 26-0 over the first two games. The Orioles will go for their first three-game sweep of the season Sunday.

Toronto 7, Kansas City 5: Danny Jansen hit a game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, Cavan Biggio launched his first career grand slam and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals 7-5 after starter Marcus Stroman exited early with a cramp in his non-pitching shoulder.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. added a solo home run for the Blue Jays, who recovered after blowing a one-run lead in the top of the ninth.

With closer Ken Giles apparently unavailable after finishing Friday’s game, Toronto gave right-hander Daniel Hudson (5-2) his third save opportunity of the season.

Minnesota 10, Chicago White Sox 3: Nelson Cruz and Max Kepler each hit two home runs, Miguel Sano went deep, and Michael Pineda threw six solid innings to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 10-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Cruz hit a pair of two-run homers, connecting against Ivan Nova (3-7) in the first and launching a 469-foot shot to center off Jose Ruiz in the ninth. That gave him three multihomer games this season and 30 in his career.

National League

Miami 9, Philadelphia 6: Neil Walker homered and drove in three runs to help the Miami Marlins rally from a five-run deficit and beat the Philadelphia Phillies for the fifth consecutive time, 9-6.

The Marlins fell behind 6-1 before starting their comeback when Walker snapped an 0-for-15 skid with a two-run homer in the sixth inning. He contributed an RBI single in Miami’s six-run seventh, and JT Riddle delivered a tiebreaking two-run double off Adam Morgan (2-3).

Chicago Cubs 6, Cincinnati 0: Javier Baez hit his first grand slam of the season Saturday, and Jose Quintana went six innings for his first victory since May 5, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 6-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds.

The NL Central leaders are 14-14 in June. They need to win the final game of the series to avoid their first losing month since May of 2017. They’ve had 12 straight winning months in the regular season.

The benches and bullpens cleared after Pedro Strop hit Yasiel Puig in the thigh with a pitch in the eighth. Puig slammed his batting helmet to the ground and walked toward Strop while yelling and gesturing, but players intervened. Puig had taunted Cubs baserunner Albert Almora Jr. from right field during the series opener.

Interleague

Detroit 7, Washington 5: Miguel Cabrera had three hits and three RBIs as the Detroit Tigers rallied twice and snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 7-5 victory over the Washington Nationals.