When the Oakland Athletics signed Cuban outfielder Yoesnis Cespedes to a four-year contract he was brought in to provide much needed power to the A’s lineup. It did not take long for him to make an impact with the A’s as he had a tremendous spring training debut in which he went 2-2, with a walk, an rbi single and a solo home run. He did run into some struggles with the bat after his impressive spring debut, he did make the A’s opening day roster as the starting center fielder.
In Cespedes Major League debut he batted seventh and picked up his first hit of his career, a double off of Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez in his second at-bat.
Cespedes was moved up one place in the lineup to sixth against Mariners lefty Jason Vargas. He had two at-bats against Vargas, one resulted in a ground out to shortstop and the other at-bat he struck out swinging.
Coco Crisp opened the bottom of the seventh with a leadoff walk and after a fly out by Jonny Gomes, Mariners manager Eric Wedge called for a pitching change with right handed reliever Shawn Kelley replacing Vargas. Kurt Suzuki grounded into a fielders choice giving Cespedes an opportunity with a runner on first. Kelley’s first pitch was a slider that was taken for a strike, the second pitch from Kelley was a fastball inside that backed Cespedes off the plate, Kelley came back with a slider in the same location as strike one this one Cespedes swung at and as the video shows he hit his first Major League home run, and the A’s went from trailing 1-0, to being ahead 2-1, which got the ball rolling for the A’s who eventually defeated the Mariners 4-1 to split the season opening series of 2012 1-1.
Thanks to Sou428 for the video.
