By Gian Franco Gil
Cuban-born pitcher for the San Diego Padres Adrián Morejón became the youngest hurler from his country to pitch in a major league postseason when he faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2020 National League Divisional Series.
When he toed the rubber that day, the Mayabeque-born southpaw was only 21 years, eight months and ten day old, but his young arm carried the hopes of an entire city.
Unfortunately, the Cuban pitching prospect could not succeed in that outing. Morejón pitched two innings and had to leave the game after yielding three runs, on two hits and two walks.
So, the game was a 12-3 win for the Dodgers, who got 14 hits in their victory. The home team only managed six hits and made two errors.
The Dodgers were led by catcher Will Smith, who went 5 for 6 with a run and 3 RBI. At the same time, Mexican Julio Urías froze the bats of Padres hitters, with five innings, one hit and six strikeouts.
Adrián Morejón es el abridor cubano 🇨🇺 más joven de la historia en ver acción en una postemporada de MLB (Juego 3 NLDS 2020 v Dodgers).#DatoConSwing #OrgulloCubano #SwingCompleto pic.twitter.com/RvOIp34Ys2
— Official baseball stats by SC (@OfficialStatsSC) February 27, 2022
On April 11, 2021, Adrián sustained a costly injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Ten days later, the lefty had to undergo the famous Tommy John surgery, a very common procedure among major leaguers, especially pitchers.
Morejón made his MLB debut in 2019, so he has three seasons under his belt. For one reason or another, the left handed pitcher has not been able to stabilize his performance, and in three seasons he has 16 outings, with a 2-2- ledger. In the meantime, his ERA is 5.91, due to 21 runs in 32 innings of work.
Morejón is expected to return during the second part of the upcoming campaign. After earning a spot in the San Diego Padres rotation at the start of last season, he will have to make up for lost time after a year in recovery.
