MVN - Most Valuable Network

Harrison Dominates Major League Debut As Rangers Top Angels, 3-2

It was nearly 20 years ago that a wide-eyed 24-year-old southpaw by the name of Kenny Rogers made his Major League debut in a Texas Rangers uniform after seven full seasons of toiling at such exotic minor league destinations as Low-A Burlington, High-A Charlotte, and Double-A Tulsa.

Matt Harrison spent neither as many years on this earth nor as many years in professional baseball before his opportunity to make an indelible first impression on the majors came to pass. The minor league work histories of the two no-nonsense lefties are only marginally similar in terms of raw peripheral indicators.

But while watching Harrison deal for the first time ever to a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim lineup that has played an instrumental role in the club’s ascension to the top of the AL West standings in 2008, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that there was some Kenny Rogers buried deep within the 22-year-old hurler from Durham, North Carolina.

The key difference between the pair? After Rogers made his Major League debut on April 6th, 1989 as a left-handed relief specialist, it would take another full season before he was rewarded by the Rangers with his first big league start (which he promptly lost) - and nearly five more months after that before he received a second big league start, which he finally won with the aid of six sharp innings.

Harrison, comparatively, would turn in seven stellar innings of two-run baseball in his Major League debut, yielding just five hits and a walk and tossing 57 of his 97 pitches for strikes en route to beating the Angels in front of an announced attendance of 18,788 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on Tuesday evening.

Kenny’s opponent on September 26th, 1990, the date of his first big league victory as a starter? The California Angels, whom he successfully bested in front of 18,761 at since-demolished Arlington Stadium.

Upon closer examination, the parallels run deeper than you might think.

There were other fascinating subplots in a game that saw its first pitch thrown 56 minutes after the original 7:05 p.m. start time due to a passing band of showers that infiltrated the Metroplex from the south, such as the inimitable Chris Davis (.216/.293/.649 in 37 AB) moving one step closer to replicating Victor Diaz’s bizarre .240/.259/.538 performance in 104 AB with the Rangers last season by smashing his fifth homer to Greene’s Hill off American League wins leader Joe Saunders.

Or Eddie Guardado and C.J. Wilson doing what they usually do - that is, the former shutting down the opposition with precision as opposed to raw power, and the latter nearly throwing everything away by placing the tying and go-ahead runs on base before narrowly escaping with his 22nd save of the 2008 season.

But it was Harrison who ultimately became the talk of the town on Tuesday evening, matching Saunders pitch for pitch while wearing a calculated, unwavering stare that only seemed to soften once his first Major League victory had been assured by Juan Rivera’s game-ending ground out to second baseman Ian Kinsler:

“It’s everything I ever worked for in my life and coming up through the minor leagues,” Harrison said. “I can’t explain how happy I am to be here. I talked to a few of the pitchers before the game and they just said, ‘Be aggressive and throw strikes.’”

Harrison’s velocity fluctuated wildly as the evening progressed; his fastball was clocked as low as 86 MPH and as high as 93 MPH by MLB.com’s Pitch f/x recognition system, while his high-70s to low-80s change-up was utilized far more often than either of his other two secondary offerings. Even though Harrison posted an uninspiring inverse ground-to-fly ratio (9-to-10), his plus command of the strike zone and ability to effectively change speeds facilitated the retirement of 10 consecutive Angels at one point.

Multiple local media sources are already speculating that Harrison could receive yet another big league start before the All-Star break, which would fly in the face of the idea that Wednesday evening’s starter, southpaw Michael Ballard, might replace Harrison on the active roster in the hours to come. Right-handers Luis Mendoza and Warner Madrigal are also serious candidates for removal, albeit for entirely different reasons:

“[Harrison] threw to the game plan to perfection,” manager Ron Washington said. “He was great. It gives us options. We have the potential of a pretty good big-leaguer.”

Should Harrison procure that second start against the first-place Chicago White Sox on Sunday and collect his second win in as many tries, struggling Cincinnati right-hander Josh Fogg may have to begin considering the relinquishment of the rights to the title of “Dragon Slayer.”

And next up after that?

“The Gambler.”

Quick Hits: High-A Bakersfield southpaw Kasey Kiker posted six innings of shutout baseball on Tuesday evening, allowing four hits and no walks while striking out seven…Ian Kinsler now has a 20-game hitting streak, the second longest in the majors this season behind only Michael Young’s 23-game hitting streak…Brandon McCarthy (right forearm inflammation) is scheduled to pitch a simulated game in Surprise, Arizona on Wednesday.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 3:38 am and is filed under The Season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.