  Jurickson Profar homers Texas to victory
Nederlands
...Jurickson Profar during the WBC...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
 ARLINGTON, Texas (USA) -
Jurickson Profar hit his first career, walk-off homerun on Thursday-evening, September 26, when he entered the game in the bottom of the ninth inning as a pinch-hitter for Texas Rangers.
He faced Michael Kohn of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who had just come on in relief.
The lefthanded-hitting Profar (he is a switch-hitter) then hit an 1-1 count over the rightfield-wall to give the Rangers an important 6-5 victory.
With the victory, the Rangers remain in the race for one of the Wild Cards in the American League.
Tampa Bay Rays currently is in position for the first Wild Card, trailed by Cleveland Indians (who at the moment is in place for the second one) and Texas.
With three games remaining in the regular season, Texas trails Cleveland by only game and the Rays by two.
So everything is still possible in this Wild Card-race.
Of the three teams, Texas is the only one to finish the season at home, meeting the Angels on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The Indians conclude their season with the final three games of their series at Minnesota Twins, while the Rays have a 3-game series scheduled at Toronto Blue Jays.
With his 20 years and 218 days, Profar is the youngest player to hit a walk-off homerun since Miguel Cabrera in 2003.
Cabrera was 20 years and 63 days when he hit one for the Florida Marlins.
In the last eight days, Dutch players Xander Bogaerts (Boston Red Sox), Andrelton Simmons (Atlanta Braves) and Jonathan Schoop (Baltimore Orioles) hit important homeruns for either their team or in their career.
In March of this year, Profar joined the Dutch National Baseball Team for the Final Round of the World Baseball Classic in San Francisco (USA).
This month, we already had several milestones and accomplisments by Dutch players in the Major League and in Asia:
- On September 3, infielder Didi Gregorius (Arizona Diamondbacks) became the first Dutch-born and raised player to play in his 100th Major League-game and he celebrated that by hitting a homerun
- On September 7, infielder Xander Bogaerts (Boston Red Sox) hit his first Major League-homerun
- On September 11, outfielder Wladimir Balentien (Yakult Swallows) ties the single-season homerun-record in the Japanese Major League by hitting his 55th homerun of the season
- On September 11, pitcher Shairon Martis made his comeback in the Major League after a 4-year absence when he pitched for Minnesota Twins, two days after being recalled
- On September 15, Wladimir Balentien hits his 56th and 57th homerun to break the Japanese season-homerun-record which was originally set in 1964 by legendary Sadaharu Oh and was tied twice
- On September 19, pitcher Kenley Jansen threw a perfect ninth inning to record his 26th save for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the game that secured the title in the National League West Division
- On September 20, Xander Bogaerts celebrated the championship-title of the American League East Division with the Boston Red Sox
- On September 22, designated hitter Andruw Jones hits his 25th homerun of the season for Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in his first year in Japan
- On September 22, short stop Andrelton Simmons hits two homeruns for Atlanta Braves in the game that sealed the championship in the National League-East; it also was his 150th game of the season
- On September 25, Wladimir Balentien gets two runs batted in and nears the top of the RBI-category, getting a possible Triple Crown in sight
- On September 25, pitcher Rick van den Hurk makes his 23rd appearance of the season for Samsung Lions in the Korean Major League; so far, he has won six games in his first season there
- On September 25, second baseman Jonathan Schoop makes his Major League-debut, playing for Baltimore Orioles, and hits a single in his first at bat and a homerun in his third at bat
- Today, on September 26, Jurickson Profar hits a pinch-hit, walk-off homerun for Texas Rangers to keep the team in the race for the Wild Card in the American League
(September 26)
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