Matt Peacock, a former Saraland High School and South Alabama standout, made his Major League debut on his first day by earning his first pitching win, getting his first hit, and scoring his first run.
Peacock was promoted from the taxi squad to the active roster on Tuesday to fill the void left in Arizona’s bullpen by the injury to veteran reliever Joakim Soria.
He pitched the final three innings in the Diamondbacks’ 10-8, 13-inning victory over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver on Tuesday night.
Peacock’s debut was the first in Major League Baseball since April 19, 1945. That was the last occasion a pitcher made his debut appearance in an extra-inning game and earned a hit and a victory.
Marino Pieretti of the Washington Senators pitched all 12 innings in the Senators’ 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park on that date. Pieretti’s first MLB at-bat resulted in a single.
Peacock’s debut, however, went above and beyond that rarity. Peacock is the only pitcher who has gotten a hit in his MLB debut after the ninth inning, out of the 30 pitchers who have done so.
Torey Lovullo, the Diamondbacks’ manager, said, “It’ll be something we speak about for a long time.” “I’m sure Player Development is paying attention, and they should be quite happy with how they prepared and coached him.”
Matt agreed to the coaching. He entered into a position with a tremendous heartbeat that we were aware of and were able to execute, and that’s basically all it came down to, so he deserved it. He earned all he received today.
In his MLB debut, Peacock allowed two unearned runs, one hit, and one walk while striking out one batter.
Due to the extra-inning rules implemented by Major League Baseball last season, Peacock had to deal with a runner placed on second in each of his frames when he took the mound in the 11th inning.