‘What a cool second’: Lester’s 1st MLB hit an enormous one for O’s

SAN FRANCISCO — Josh Lester waited a very long time for this second.

“It’s something that I’ve looked forward to for my entire life, since I was 5 years old playing baseball,” Lester mentioned. “But for it to come in a big moment of the game like that with some guys on was even better.”

Lester got here to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs within the third and delivered a line drive to middle to drive in two runs. A 3rd run got here residence on an error to make it 6-0 as Baltimore batted round within the inning.

“What a cool moment for Josh Lester,” supervisor Brandon Hyde mentioned. “A lot of Minor League time and gets an opportunity and just gets an enormous hit for us.”

Added Lester: “I think I might’ve blacked out a little bit. Obviously, just a surreal moment. It’s been a long time in the Minor Leagues and a little bit of last year in the big leagues. Getting that first hit is just a huge moment.”

A Thirteenth-round Draft decide of the Tigers in 2015, Lester lastly received his first style of the large leagues final season with Detroit, going 0-for-5 in two video games. The 28-year-old elected free company after the season and signed a Minor League contract with the Orioles in December.

Lester was chosen from Triple-A Norfolk on Saturday and received the beginning at third base Sunday.

“Somebody that’s never been on a top prospect list or somebody that’s drafted in the 13th round,” Hyde mentioned. “His story is a great one.”

Lester made certain to avoid wasting the baseball, although he wasn’t fairly certain the place it might find yourself simply but.

“It’s either going to go with my parents or I’m going to ship it to my fiancée and we’ll put it in our house,” he mentioned.

James McCann added his third residence run of the season, a solo shot within the sixth, offering greater than sufficient run help for Tyler Wells. The right-hander recorded a career-high 9 strikeouts and restricted the Giants to 2 runs on 4 hits and two walks in 5 1/3 innings.

“I thought Wellsy was really good,” Hyde mentioned. “He was mixing speeds so well. This is a really good fastball-hitting team. They’re aggressive on fastballs. We saw that against [Kyle] Bradish and [Dean] Kremer early in that game [on Friday and Saturday]. Wellsy did a great job of mixing.”

Wells (4-2) has struck out at the least seven batters in 5 consecutive begins and he continues to guide the Majors with a 0.85 WHIP.

“I wasn’t trying to strike out a lot of guys today,” he mentioned. “I was just trying to hit my spots, and fortunately, it worked out that way.”

The Orioles took two of three from San Francisco to proceed their street dominance, bettering to 20-10 away from residence, tied for the very best mark within the Majors.

Baltimore has received eight of its 10 street collection this 12 months.

“I think we have a bunch of pros that are ready to play and come to the park prepared,” Hyde mentioned. “This is not an easy place to play, especially day games here with the sun, the wind. It’s definitely different. So to get two out of three here is a good series for us.”