CLEVELAND — Editor's note: the video in the player above is from a previous story.
After retiring the first 23 batters he faced, Triston McKenzie surrendered a two-out hit to Harold Castro in the bottom of the eighth inning of the Cleveland Indians' 11-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday.
But if the Indians' right-hander was devastated of falling four outs short of what would have been Cleveland's first perfect game since 1981, he didn't show it on social media.
Rather, the 24-year-old opted to make light of the situation, noting the attention his near-perfect game received. In a tweet posted just hours after the Indians completed their 11-0 victory, McKenzie noted that he was featured prominently on ESPN's "SportsCenter."
"I was on @Sportscenter," McKenzie tweeted along with a laughing emoji and moon emoji.
Had McKenzie successfully completed a perfect game, it would have marked MLB's first since Felix Hernandez threw one for the Seattle Mariners against the Tampa Bay Rays exactly nine years earlier on Aug. 15, 2012. McKenzie officially finished Sunday's game with eight innings pitched, one hit allowed, no walks and 11 strikeouts.
"I started thinking about it in the third inning, I knew I was perfect through the first time through the order, but I didn't change my routine," McKenzie said after the game, according to The Associated Press. "If I had to sum today up in one word, it would be 'comfortable.' I got into my groove right away and just kept going."