Rays two-way rookie Brendan McKay made his debut as a hitter against the Orioles on Monday night in Tampa Bay, in the starting lineup as the designated hitter and batting eighth.

McKay finished 0-for-4, hitting the ball on the ground each time in the Rays' 6-3 win over Baltimore. With the Rays leading 2-0 and the bases loaded, McKay grounded out to first base to end the first inning. He grounded out to second to end the fourth, and he grounded to second for a forceout in the sixth before getting picked off second base to end the inning. He grounded out to second again in the eighth.

“I thought they were good," manager Kevin Cash said of McKay's at-bats. "Anxious a little bit. But I was really impressed with his batting practice today. He certainly looked the part. I don’t know when the next opportunity will be, but he’ll get back out there, and we’ll get that first hit eventually here and keep him rolling from there.”

McKay had faced Orioles starter Tom Eshelman before, with better results.

“It was interesting," Eshelman said after his Major League debut. "I faced him in the Louisville Super Regional. To see him on the other side was kind of funny. I knew what not to throw him because he hit a homer off me in that game, but congrats to him. To be able to do it two ways in the big leagues is pretty awesome. It was definitely a weird feeling facing him in a big league uniform, but it was fun.”

McKay, rated as the Rays’ No. 2 prospect by MLB Pipeline -- and No. 23 overall -- was nearly perfect in his pitching debut Saturday against the Rangers. He didn’t allow a baserunner until the sixth inning, when Danny Santana broke up a perfect game bid with a bloop single into right field. McKay struck out three and walked one over six scoreless frames.

After shifting him between DH and first base the previous two seasons in the Minors, the Rays have scaled back McKay’s two-way usage this year. They've restricted him to DH to limit injury risk, as he ultimately projects to be a key rotation piece moving forward, but his left-handed bat is still an asset.

The 23-year-old has made 150 plate appearances in the Minors this season with Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham, and after his promotion to Durham in late May, he sported a .951 OPS with six extra-base hits (two doubles and four homers) in 15 games.

The Rays selected McKay as the No. 4 overall pick in the 2017 Draft out of Louisville, where he was a three-time recipient of the John Olerud Award as the top two-way player in college baseball.