The baseball fan who got signed by the A’s based on his performance a high-speed pitch challenge booth at Coors Field made his professional debut on Thursday.
It wasn’t immaculate, but Nathan Patterson’s first appearance was pretty damn good.
Patterson took the mound for Oakland’s Arizona League team against an affiliate for the Chicago Cubs and struck out the side on 18 pitches. All three batters the 23-year-old faced went down swinging.
3 batters, 3 swinging Ks – @npatterson_12 strikes out the side in his first career start for the Athletics. @RSRBaseball pic.twitter.com/o3O5pV2xnv
— Ty Smith (@TySmith_IU21) August 16, 2019
And 2 weeks after that…he strikes out the side in his professional debut!! @MLB @Athletics @PitchingNinja @npatterson_12 pic.twitter.com/i27njnFUUc
— Christian Patterson (@cpatterson_7) August 16, 2019
Lol threw 18 pitches but MiLB doesn’t track them all. Not exactly sure the approach there so yeah let’s go with 9 pitches 🤫😬 thanks for the love my man 👊🏻 https://t.co/jlboZdfTSX
— Nathan Patterson (@npatterson_12) August 16, 2019
“Last night was incredible and truly a blessing as I made my first professional outing,” Patterson wrote on Instagram after his debut. “I’m not gonna lie, the nerves were flowing until I threw strike one. After that, I took a big deep breath and realized all the hard work over the last year has prepared me for this moment. It could not have gone any better and I cannot thank my family, friends, teammates, and coaches enough for the love and support.”
It’s a pretty solid start for a guy who was working as a software salesman after becoming convinced his playing days had ended in high school.
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