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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Yanks’ prized prospect an O-fer in debut

New York Yankees' Gleyber Torres hits into a double play during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium, Sunday, April 22, 2018, in New York. (Seth Wenig / AP)
From wire reports

Gleyber Torres had a tough time at the plate in his first major league game.

The prized prospect went 0 for 4 and stranded six runners during his highly anticipated debut for the New York Yankees, who nonetheless cruised to a 5-1 victory Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays.

“I feel good. Super excited,” Torres said afterward.

The 21-year-old infielder played second base and batted eighth in a Yankees lineup that didn’t include a player 30 or older for the first time since Sept. 29, 1989, according to STATS.

Rated among the top five or six prospects in baseball, Torres became the youngest position player to appear in a game for the Yankees since 20-year-old Melky Cabrera in 2005. Atlanta second baseman Ozzie Albies, also 21, is the only major leaguer younger than Torres to play in a game this season.

The crowd at Yankee Stadium buzzed when Torres came to the plate for the first time with two runners in scoring position in the second inning. He received a warm ovation, then struck out swinging at an 82 mph curveball from left-hander Jaime Garcia for the second out. With two on in the fourth, Torres grounded into an inning-ending double play. He also fouled out and flied out.

Torres was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he was hitting .347 with a home run, three doubles, one triple and 11 RBIs.

Giants’ Belt has 21-pitch at-bat

Brandon Belt hung in for an epic 21-pitch at-bat before flying out, but later homered to lead the San Francisco Giants over the host Los Angeles Angels 4-2 on Sunday.

Belt fouled off 11 straight pitches from rookie right-hander Jaime Barria in the first inning in the majors’ longest at-bat since records began in 1988. The previous high of 20 pitches in a plate appearance since 1988 was when Houston’s Ricky Gutierrez struck out against Cleveland’s Bartolo Colon on June 26, 1998, according to Retrosheet.

In all, the left-handed Belt peppered the crowd with 16 foul balls his first time up. He hit two long fouls down the right-field line before lining out to right fielder Kole Calhoun, ending an at-bat the Giants said lasted 12 minutes, 45 seconds.

Belt singled and scored in the third and launched a leadoff homer to right against Blake Parker in the fifth. Belt saw a total of 38 pitches in his first three at-bats, then hit the first pitch his last two times up.

Clearing the bases

White Sox officials say reliever Danny Farquhar remains in critical but stable condition after collapsing in the dugout Friday and suffering a brain hemorrhage. … MLB had its 26th postponement of the season when the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves were washed out, the most related to weather through April since the commissioner’s office started keeping records in 1986.