Thursday night was historic for the Baltimore Orioles and their center fielder Steve Wilkerson, as he became the first position player in MLB history to record a save.
His save was not flashy but it got the job done throwing a 14 pitch perfect inning retiring Brian Goodwin, Kole Calhoun and Albert Pujols. Closing the LA Angels out in the 16th inning throwing what looked like 55 mph lobs with his average pitch velocity sitting at 54.3 mph in their 10-8 victory.
Outfielder Stevie Wilkerson is the first position player to ever record a save.
He only needed 14 pitches to do it and NONE of them were over 60 mph ? pic.twitter.com/4cGVfRwc0l
— ESPN (@espn) July 26, 2019
Despite this being his first save it was not the first time he had been on the mound, it was actually the third time in the last 2 weeks that he has had to pitch for the Orioles. The other two situations were nowhere near as big, both coming in blowout losses where he threw a perfect inning against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 12th and allowed one run against the Boston Red Sox on July 20th.
The Orioles have a record of 33-69 in what has been a pretty bad season for the team, at least Wilkerson making history can give them something positive to look back on after their season is complete.
