Merritt (1-0) picked up the win against the Royals on Friday, tossing 6.2 scoreless innings and allowing seven hits and a walk while striking out three.
The left-hander looked more like last year's playoff hero than he had in his two previous big-league starts in 2017, firing 66 of 97 pitches for strikes and producing an eye-popping 11 groundball outs against only one flyball out. With Josh Tomlin (hamstring) set to come off the DL at the end of the month, however, Merritt will likely settle into a long-relief role over the final weeks of the season.