St. Louis Cardinals Joshua Baez has historic debut

The St. Louis Cardinals number 3 prospect made his MLB debut yesterday and did something rarely seen in baseball today.  He did something nobody has ever done in the history of the game.  In a game that has always been statistically focused, rarely does something happen that we have never seen.

Joshua Baez led all of Triple-A in home runs before his call up, hitting 34 HR's while driving in 90 RBI's in 103 games for the Memphis Redbirds.  His power has been on display all year.

In the 1st inning he took a 93 MPH fastball, on the first pitch, and hit it 449 feet with an exit velocity of 108 MPH.  It is the 3rd longest MLB debut HR since 2006.  While this would have been a dream debut for anyone, Baez was just getting started. 

Int he 4th inning he got in an 0-2 hole and battled back to a full count.  On a change up low in the zone he hit a line drive deep into the bleachers in left field for his 2nd HR in as many MLB at-bats.  And he still wasn't finished.  

In the 6th inning Baez walked to the plate a gain and hit an inside pitch into the stands in right for an opposite field HR becoming the first player in MLB history to hit a HR on his first three plate appearances. 

All three HR's came off Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd.  To recap, he homered to all three fields, on three different pitches across the first 6 innings. They combined for 1,199 feet of HR.  He finished the game 3-4 with 3 HR's and 5 RBI's.  

We will all be watching closely to see how Baez finishes the season, but it is very rare today that a player does something we have never seen before.  Baez did it in game one, it will be tough for him to top this from a personal standpoint.  He will get to follow up that performance today when the Cardinals take on the Cubs again today at Wrigley for game 2 of his already historic career.