Raul Mondesi's son became the first player ever to make his Major League debut in the World Series
Raul Mondesi's son made his MLB debut in World Series
Making your Major League debut is already supposed to be a harrowing, nerve-wracking experience. Now imagine doing it in a World Series. On the road. In New York. Yeah, seems a bit tough.
But Raul Adalberto Mondesi*, son of former Major Leaguer Raul Mondesi, became the first player in Major League history to be given the honor of making his big league debut in the Fall Classic.
(If you're wondering why he doesn't go by Raul Mondesi Jr., well, his brother took that name as a prospect in the Brewers system.)
Seeing his son in the World Series this quickly might be a little difficult for his cannon-arm-tattoo-having Dad, now a mayor in the Dominican Republic, to accept. After all, he never played this late into October in his career.
Raul Mondesi played 1525 games and 0 World Series games. His son played 0 regular season games and 1 World Series game @cantpredictball
- Ethan Zien (@ejzien) October 31, 2015
Unfortunately for the younger Raul, his debut was a rough one. After pinch-hitting for Danny Duffy, Mondesi had to face off against the hard-throwing also-a-rookie Noah Syndergaard. After looking at a 97-mph sinker for ball one, Syndergaard kept coming with the hard cheese -- 96, 96 and 98 mph pitches later and Mondesi was down swinging.
Don't feel bad, though, Raul Adalberto: After all, Syndergaard struck out 166 batters in 150 innings this season -- and those were all against batters not making their big league debut on the world's grandest stage.