ST. GEORGE — Former Desert Hills High School star Drew Thorpe made his Major League Baseball debut on Tuesday night, pitching the first five innings for the Chicago White Sox in their road game versus the Seattle Mariners.
Although the White Sox held a 3-2 lead when Thorpe left the game after five innings, the Mariners went on to win, 4-3.
Nevertheless, Thorpe had a solid outing, giving up one earned run on three hits while recording four strikeouts and just two walks.
“I can’t really put it into words, honestly,” Thorpe was quoted as saying in a post on the ChiSox’s official X account. “It’s my dream come true, and it was good to get the first one out of the way.”
According to MLB.com, the 23-year-old righthander threw a total 98 pitches, 61 of which were strikes. He threw 38 changeups, his signature pitch. His next most common offering was a four-seam fastball, which he threw 28 times.
What a performance for Drew Thorpe in his @MLB debut! pic.twitter.com/XbLdGWSjBq
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) June 12, 2024
On Thorpe’s last pitch of the night, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh hit a short grounder to the third-base side of the mound, which Thorpe fielded cleanly and threw Raleigh out at first to end the fifth inning.
Thorpe, whose nickname is “The Thorpedo,” graduated from Desert Hills in 2019 before going on to play collegiate ball at Cal Poly. According to Baseball Almanac, Thorpe is only the second St. George, Utah, native to ever play Major League Baseball, with the other one being former Boston Red Sox ace pitcher Bruce Hurst.
The White Sox recently called up Thorpe from the club’s Double-A affiliate in Alabama, the Birmingham Barons, where he had posted a 7-1 record this year, with an ERA of 1.35 over 60 innings pitched, recording 56 strikeouts and just 17 walks.
Thorpe is tentatively projected to make his second start this weekend in Phoenix as the ChiSox play a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
A night he will never forget pic.twitter.com/Aa6S6tf1m3
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) June 12, 2024
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