Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Dane De La Rosa is first former Victoria Seal in majors!

Well folks, it happened. The first former member of the Victoria Seals has been called up to the big leagues! On Monday night, the Tamp Bay Rays called up Dane De la Rosa from the AAA Durham Bulls. He'll pitch out of the pen and could see action against the New York Yankees on Wednesday or Thursday night.

De La Rosa earned the promotion by going 4-3 with a 3.86 ERA in 35 games with the Bulls.  Back in July/August of 2009, he posted a 2.45 ERA in six relief appearances with the Victoria Seals. However, De La Rosa only pitched on the road for the Seals and he never appeared in a game at Royal Athletic Park.

Congratulations, Dane!

Update:
De La Rosa made his major-league debut on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field. He came into the game in the top of the 8th with the Yankees leading 2-0 and a runner on first with one out. He then struck out Mark Teixeira on a 93 MPH cutter to start a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play to get out of the inning. Nerves appeared to get the better of De La Rosa in the top of the 9th, however. After getting Robinson Cano to ground out, De La Rosa walked Nick Swisher. He then walked Canadian Russ Martin on four pitches and was promptly yanked from the game. Unfortunately, De La Rosa's replacement (Cesar Ramos) allowed both inherited runners to score and the Yankees went on to win 4-0. De La Rosa's line for the night was 1 IP, 0 H, 2 ER, 2 BB and 1 K.