(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
  Yulieski Gurriel makes Major League-debut after long rain-delay
Nederlands
 BALTIMORE, Maryland (USA) -
Cuban infielder Yulieski Gurriel has made his debut in the Major League.
The Cuban powerhitter was added to the team of the Houston Astros on Sunday (August 21) after officially being recalled earlier in the day from its Triple-A team.
Gurriel had to report in Baltimore where the Astros played the final game of a 4-game series against the Baltimore Orioles.
In the afternoon, the Cuban was in the starting line-up as the designated hitter and was hitting in sixth place.
...Yulieski Gurriel playing for Cuba during...
...the 2013 World Port Tournament...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
However, it took awhile before he was able to enter the batter's box, as the start of the game was delayed by four hours due to rain.
When the game finally began, it was interrupted again by rain after one complete inning.
After another, but much shorter delay, the game resumed again.
Carlos Correa then led off the second inning for Houston with a walk, but a double play followed.
Hereafter, it was time for Gurriel's first Major League-at bat.
Facing pitcher Yovani Gallardo, with a 3-1 count, he hit the ball into left-centerfield for a single!
Gurriel walked in the fourth inning, then grounded out in the fifth to Dutch second baseman Jonathan Schoop.
In the top of the eighth inning, out of precaution, the Cuban was replaced by a pinch-hitter, as he left the game with right hamstring tightness.
The Astros won 5-3.
It marked the fourth promotion for Gurriel since he made his professional debut on July 30.
On that day, he played in his first game in Rookie League, the promoted to Single-A Advanced on August 2.
Six days later, on August 8, Gurriel was promoted to Double-A and joined the Corpus Christi Hooks in the Texas League.
While there already has been speculations that Gurriel might be promoted to the Major League shortly thereafter.
However, because he struggled somewhat in hitting, it was decided to move him to Triple-A first.
And so, on August 16 Gurriel promoted to Triple-A and went on to play for Fresno Grizzlies.
The 32-year old Gurriel left the Cuban squad in February of this year after completion of the Caribbean Series in the Dominican Republic together with his younger brother Lourdes Gurriel.
When the necessary paperwork was done to make Gurriel eligible to play in the USA, some Major League-clubs gave him a try-out or had talks with him.
On July 16, he was signed by the Houston Astros for a reported 5-year, 47,5 million dollar contract.
The Astros assigned him to the GCL Astros in the Gulf Coast League, which is at the Rookie League-level.
In the meantime, his brother also had been declared Free Agent, making him eligible to do workouts or try-outs for Major League-teams.
After his work visa was approved, Yulieski Gurriel made his debut last Saturday (July 30) in the Rookie League-team and then went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
He then played his next game on Monday (August 1) and then batted 2-for-4 with a double.
The next day, Gurriel was promoted to Single-A Advanced and joined his new team Lancaster JetHawks.
He went on to play in four games for the JetHawks and batted .429 with two doubles, a homerun and nine runs batted in.
In his last game for the JetHawks, last Sunday, Gurriel hit a grand slam homerun.
In Double-A, Gurriel played in five games for Corpus Christi Hooks, but batted only 2-for-17 (.118) with six strikeouts.
Both hits were singles and he batted in only three runs in the five games he played.
With Fresno in Triple-A, the Cuban played in four games and was 4-for-18 (.222) with a double and a homerun.
He batted in two runs and scored three, but also struckout four times.
So far, in the 15 minor league-games he played before his promotion to the Major League, Gurriel bated 14-for-56 (.250) with four doubles and two homeruns.
He struckout 15 times, walked twice, scored five runs and batted in 14 runs.
Gurriel played 15 seasons in the Cuban National Series, the highest baseball-league in Cuba.
There, he played for Sancti Spiritus and Industriales.
In 2014, Gurriel also played professionally in Japan, when he appeared in 62 games for Yokohama BayStars.
(August 21)
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