Brandon Williamson had a strong outing in his major league debut as he took a no-decision in the Cincinnati Reds’ 3-1 over the Colorado Rockies Tuesday at Coors Field in Denver.
The Martin County West graduate went 5.2 innings, allowing one run (a homer to Ezequiel Tovar) on two hits, walking two and striking out six. He threw 72 pitches, 47 for strikes.
Colorado had a 1-0 lead when Williamson left the game, but Cincinnati scored two in the seventh and one in the eighth.
Williamson had only thrown 56 pitches through five innings before running into a bit of trouble in the sixth. He struck out the first batter of the inning before allowing a solo home run to No. 9 hitter to Ezequiel Tovar.
After getting the next hitter on a comebacker to the mound, Williamson gave up a walk and a double and left the game with runners on second and third.
"I looked up in the fifth inning and was like, ‘Whoa, 56 pitches. Let’s go nine,'" Williamson joked in postgame press conference.
The 6-foot-6 lefthander said his mindset was to “just attack and throw everything with 100% conviction.
“My whole job was to commit and execute the pitch. That’s all I thought about all night, and just leave it all out there,” Williamson said.
When Williamson left the game and entered the dugout, his teammates swarmed around to congratulate him.
“It’s exciting. The team was thrilled for him,” Reds manager David Bell said. “Obviously, Brandon has got a long way to go and he’s going to keep getting better.”
Williamson became only the 10th visiting pitcher to make his Major League debut with a start in the thin air of Denver, the first since Houston’s José Urquidy on July 2, 2019.
“I tried not to think about it," Williamson said. "You go in there thinking, ‘Oh man, this is a band box.’ A little negative thought. But you don’t care where your debut is. You just want to get up here.”
Williamson had a stretch in the second through fifth innings where he retired 14 straight batters, becoming only the fourth Reds pitcher in the expansion era (since 1961) to retire at least 14 consecutive batters in his Major League debut,
According to the Elias Sports Bureau he joins Wayne Simpson (16 vs. the Dodgers, 1970), Rob Bell (16 vs. the Cubs, 2000) and Johnny Cueto (15 vs. the Diamondbacks, 2008).
The Rockies won the final game of the series today 11-6. After an off-day Thursday, Cincinnati returns home for a seven-game homestand, playing three vs. the Yankees and four vs. the Cardinals.