Pirates' Kingham retires 1st 20 batters in historic debut
Nick Kingham made an instant impression Sunday, as the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander became the first pitcher in the expansion era (since 1961) to retire the first 20 batters faced in a major-league debut, according to Elias Sports, per ESPN Stats & Info.
The 26-year-old was promoted ahead of Sunday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals and struck out nine in 6 2/3 perfect innings before allowing a single to Paul DeJong.
Kingham retired Marcell Ozuna in the subsequent plate appearance and was replaced by Michael Feliz to begin the eighth. In total, the final line for his major-league debut contained a lot of zeros:
IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
Once considered to be one of the top pitching prospects in the Pirates' farm system, Kingham struggled with injuries, requiring Tommy John surgery in 2015. Starting 2018 with Triple-A Indianapolis, Kingham posted a 1.59 ERA over 22 2/3 innings before earning his long-awaited promotion.
To date, no pitcher has thrown a perfect game in his first career start, though Bumpus Jones famously tossed a no-hitter in his MLB debut back in 1892.
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