If the pressure of an MLB debut affected Matt Bush on Friday, he sure didn’t show it.
The 30-year-old Rangers rookie who was incarcerated just seven months ago, entered Friday’s game in the ninth inning with the Rangers trailing 5-0 and promptly retired the meat of the Blue Jays order in 17 pitches — 10 of which clocked in at 96 mph or faster.
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Bush struck out the first batter of the inning, reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson, before getting Jose Bautista to pop out to second and Edwin Encarnacion to foul out to first. Those three batters combined for 120 home runs and 348 RBIs in 2015.
.@Rangers RHP Matt Bush begins @MLB career by striking out Josh Donaldson with 97-mph heat: https://t.co/Z8c2soHXhp pic.twitter.com/EYJtASJqdU
— MLB (@MLB) May 14, 2016
"I was just focused on trying to be myself out there and continuing to do what I've done in Double-A," Bush said (via ESPN.com). "But it was pretty surreal, though, with those guys in the box. It felt good to throw a couple of pitches past those guys. It just boosts my confidence. To be able to have a good outing that first time, it's just amazing."
Bush, the top pick (as a shortstop) in the 2004 MLB Draft by the Padres, signed a minor-league deal with Texas in December, not long after completing a prison sentence stemming from a hit-and-run wreck during spring training in 2012 that seriously injured a 72-year-old motorcyclist. Bush pleaded no contest to driving under the influence with serious bodily injury — his third DUI — and spent 34 months in prison, the last nine of them in a work-release program.
He had not appeared in an organized baseball game for five years before reporting to Frisco in April.
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Drafted on June 7, 2004. Debuts 4,358 days later on May 13, 2016. New position. New life. Well done, Matt Bush. pic.twitter.com/627RMRKwH3
— Ace of MLB Stats (@theaceofspaeder) May 14, 2016
"I think the crowd gave me chills out there when it got really loud, and everything just kind of hit me," Bush said Friday. "Where I've come from, getting out here and just having the support of the fans and the Rangers behind me, it just felt amazing."
As loud as the crowd cheered for Bush, his biggest supporters were in the dugout.
"Everyone's giving me high-fives, and (manager Jeff) Banister looking me straight in the eye and telling me I did a great job and he was proud of me," Bush said. "It's an amazing feeling."