Nationals Rookie Lefthander Bill Bray better enjoy that pitching line because it will never be as good again!! Bray, making his Major League Debut last night in Milwaukee against the Brewers was called on in the bottom of the 8th inning to replace Gary Majewski. Frank Robinson had a situation with 2 outs where the Brewers Pitcher Doug Davis ( who had thrown a terrific game and was leading 3-2) was up with Corey Kosie on first with a walk. The Brewers, looking for an insurance run, Pinch Hit for Davis with the powerful rookie, Prince Fielder. Frank called in Bray to the face the left handed slugger. Bray's first pitch of his career was a strike over the outside corner of the plate, but on the pitch Koskie, figuring Bray would be shaky and nervous in his first appearance, took off for second in an attempt to steal and put himself in scoring postion. Brian Schneider, finally coming around with a good all around game, gunned Koskie down easily to end the inning. Bray gets the final out on one pitch. Then, in the 9th, Ryan Zimmerman leads off with a single off Brewers Closer, Derrick Turnbow and moves to third on a hit and run when Marlon Anderson grounds out to second. With one out, Schneider takes a 1-0 pitch from Turnbow and CRANKS IT OUT OF THE PARK IN RIGHT FIELD!! For a tremendous 4-3 lead. Of course, in the bottom of the 9th, The Chief, Chad Cordero, made the ending interesting again by allowing a lead off single and and ground ball error by Royce Clayton, putting runners on 1 and 2nd with 1 out. But The Chief came back strong to strike out slugger Geoff Jenkins and gets Carlos Lee to foul back to Schneider (again-this was Brian's game all the way till the end). Cordero gets his 9th save of the season. But more importantly, Bill Bray, in his Major League Debut, gets his first WIN, ON ONE PITCH!! His linescore for this game, is one of the oddest ever in a major league debut. Bill James and those stat guys can figure out if its ever happened before.
Enjoy it Bill!! and, Welcome to the Major Leagues!!!
that even beats Arroyo's night. Bronson pitched 106 pitches and gave up 2 earned runs, but at bat he faced 3 pitches total and drove in 4 runs. Talk about being your own best supporter.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Bray
They should have brought him up ages ago. Unfortunatly Eishen hed to get hurt for them to bring up Bray. Don't get me wrong, I thought Eischen shouldn't have been with the Nationals this long. But you don't like to see anyone get hurt..... unless they are a Yankee, but even then it doesn't have to be permanent.
ReplyDeleteThat was a beautiful win to watch, from the confines of Duffy's (aided by the free Buds till nine, courtsey of some Bud marketing dude)... Thanx richard for the sweet bar tab!
ReplyDeleteGood to see Schneider swingin' the hot bat, in addition to throwing the guy out at 2nd. He's one of da good ones...
As for Bray, he pitched great!!!! Probably not gonna see another one-pitch win for a while...