Tomorrow, next week, next year or 20 years from now there will be those who will remember only that 22-year-old Joc Pederson struck out in his first major league at bat. It will forever be etched in stone on the pages of Baseball-Reference.com or whatever site we’ll be using to quench our baseball stat thirst in the future. But for those who were at Monday night’s exciting game between the Dodgers and Washington Nationals or were among the few who weren’t shutout by the Time Warner Cable/DirecTV dispute and were able to see it on TV, they know that there was more to Pederson’s first major league at-bat than just a strike out – a lot more.

Before dissecting Pederson’s exciting debut at-bat, one needs to take a look at what got the Palo Alto, CA native to the major leagues in the first place. Not only was Pederson the first player in the Pacific Coast League to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases since 1934, he also led the league in home runs (33), OBP (.435) and OPS (1.017) earning him the PCL’s MVP and Rookie of the Year titles. But there is another stat that Pederson had with the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes, one that perhaps more than any other showed that he was MLB-ready – Pederson walked 100 times in 553 plate appearances to set a new Isotopes record.

Without going into all of the details of the ninth inning, let’s fast forward to Pederson’s at-bat itself. With two outs and runners on first and second, Pederson was called upon to pinch hit for Dodgers pitcher Yimi Garcia, who himself made his MLB debut in the game. With the Nationals leading 6-4, Pederson came to the plate representing the winning run – no pressure here.

Joc Pederson wasn’t the only one who made his MLB debut on Monday night. Twenty-four-year-old Yimi Garcia pitched two scoreless innings in relief allowing only one hit while striking out one.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

After taking two 93-MPH fastballs for ball one and ball two, Nationals closer Rafael Soriano came right back with a third fastball that was right over the heart of the plate. Pederson took a hard swing at the pitch and just missed squaring it up and instead fouled it off down the right field line. Pederson knew he missed his pitch and Soriano knew that he got away with what could have been or even should have been a walk-off three run home run, but instead the count was now 2-1.

“It was just a fastball,” said Pederson after the game. “I pulled off it a little bit. You can’t miss that one.”

Pederson got the pitch he wanted but unfortunately he just missed it and fouled it off.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Soriano came back with yet another fastball, this one at 94 MPH that Pederson took for strike two. The crafty right-hander then threw the left-handed hitting Pederson an 87-MPH slider in the dirt which Pederson took for ball three. Soriano came right back with another 87-MPH slider that Pederson thought was outside for ball four.

It was not.

Pederson struck out looking for the final out of the game.

“It was pretty frustrating but that’s how the game goes,” said Pederson. “You never want to make the last out of a game so that was pretty frustrating.”

No pressure here.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As for the overall experience of being called up to the big leagues and being put into a high pressure situation in your very first MLB at-bat, Pederson flashed a smile and told reporters exactly what you might expect from someone who finally made it to the Show.

“That’s a thing as a little kid you’re chasing in a game, and it came in my first at-bat, so I thought it was pretty special. Unfortunately it didn’t go the way I wanted.”

Trust me Joc, sooner or later it will go the way you want – and probably sooner than later.