Yusmeiro Petit

Yusmeiro Petit

Free Agent
Pitcher
Born: (1984-11-22) November 22, 1984
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Bats: Right Throws: Right
MLB debut
May 14, 2006, for the Florida Marlins
MLB statistics
(through 2016 season)
Win–loss record 23–32
Earned run average 4.58
Strikeouts 465
Teams
Career highlights and awards
MLB records
  • 46 consecutive batters retired (2014)
  • 15 1⁄3 consecutive perfect innings pitched (2014)

Yusmeiro Alberto Petit (Spanish pronunciation: [ʝusˈmeiɾo peˈtit]; born November 22, 1984) is a Venezuelan professional baseball pitcher who is currently a free agent. He previously played for the Florida Marlins, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants, and Washington Nationals. In 2014, Petit retired 46 consecutive batters to set a new Major League record. He throws right-handed. As of 2016, he is the only person ever to play on winning teams in both the Little League World Series and the Major League World Series.[1]

Early life

As a ten-year-old, Petit competed in the 1994 Little League World Series, representing the championship-winning Coquivacoa Little League team. This was the first time a Venezuelan team had won the LLWS title in eight appearances.[1]

Professional career

New York Mets

Petit signed with the New York Mets as an international free agent on November 15, 2001. He made his professional debut in 2002 with the Venezuelan Summer League where he went 3–5 with 2.43 earned run average (ERA) in 12 games, 11 starts.

In 2003 Petit split the season between the Rookie-Level Kingsport Mets and the Short-Season Brooklyn Cyclones. He finished third in the Appalachian League in strikeouts, fourth in strikeouts per nine innings and fifth in ERA. Petit also placed second in Appalachian League in fewest bases on balls per nine innings and allowed the second fewest runners per nine innings. He was named Pitcher of the Week for the week of July 14 to July 20. He was promoted to Brooklyn of the New York–Penn League on August 23. He recorded 20 strikeouts in 12 1⁄3 innings with the Cyclones.

He spent time with the Class-A Capital City Bombers, the Class-A Advanced St. Lucie Mets and the Double-A Binghamton Mets during the 2004 season. He finished second among all Minor League pitchers with 200 strikeouts and first in strikeouts per nine innings with a 12.92 clip. Petit received the Sterling Organizational Pitcher of the Year Award as top pitcher in the Mets organization. He began the season at Capital City of the South Atlantic League where he was selected to the Mid-Season All-Star team. He notched 122 strikeouts and walked only 22 walks in 83 innings with the Bombers. He was first in the league in wins and strikeouts before he was promoted to St. Lucie of the Florida State League on July 26. He had 62 strikeouts in 44 1⁄3 innings with St. Lucie. He was soon promoted to Binghamton of the Eastern League on August 28. Petit made two starts for Binghamton and fanned 10 batters in seven innings on August 28. He pitched  2⁄3 scoreless innings for the World Team at the 2004 All-Star Futures Game on July 11 in Houston, Texas. He was 4–3 with a 2.15 ERA in 11 starts in the Venezuelan Winter League.

Petit spent time with Binghamton and the Triple-A Norfolk Tides in 2005. He went 9–3 with 2.91 ERA in 21 starts at Double-A, then went 0–3 with 9.20 ERA in three starts with Norfolk after being promoted on August 22. He made four starts for the Norfolk Tides, including one in the playoffs against the Toledo Mud Hens. He lost all three regular-season starts, allowing 16 runs on 24 hits in 14 2⁄3 innings. He did however earn a win in the playoff start against Toledo, allowing three earned runs on six hits in eight innings, recording 14 strikeouts. He was named to the Eastern League's mid-season All-Star team and finished second in the league in ERA. He again pitched in the Venezuelan Winter League, going 5–1 with one save and 2.01 ERA in nine games.

Florida Marlins

In November 2005, the Mets traded Petit along with Mike Jacobs and Grant Psomas for Carlos Delgado.[2] He appeared in 15 games, one start, with the Marlins, going 1–1 with 9.57 ERA during his three major league stints. He pitched primarily out of bullpen, going 0–1 with 10.18 ERA in 14 outings as a reliever. He made his major league debut on May 14 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing one hit with two strikeouts in one inning. He held the Atlanta Braves scoreless in three innings during second appearance on May 17 at Turner Field, recording a career-high three strikeouts. Petit suffered first major league loss on May 19 against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, allowing a 10th-inning walk-off home run to Aubrey Huff. He was optioned to the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes on June 18 after going 0–1 with 7.36 ERA in seven outings. He was recalled on July 4, and went 1–0 with a 10.57 ERA in two games before he was optioned back to Albuquerque on July 17. He was again recalled on September 1 going 0–0 with 11.74 ERA in final six appearances of season. He made his first major league start and earned first major league win on July 5 against the Washington Nationals.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Petit pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2009

He was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 26, 2007, for Jorge Julio.[3] He picked up his first win for the Triple-A Tucson Sidewinders on April 15 against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, tossing six innings, allowing two earned runs off six hits with five strikeouts. He was recalled on April 22 and made his D-backs debut that night against the San Francisco Giants, allowing two runs over seven innings in the loss. He earned wins in five of his next six starts, going 5–0 with a 2.21 ERA. He earned his first win for the D-backs on July 3 against the St. Louis Cardinals, allowing one run over 5 1⁄3 innings.

Going into the 2009 season, Petit was the likely candidate for the fifth starter role in the pitching rotation or a long-relief role, out of the bullpen.[4][5] He started the season in the major leagues for the first time in his career and posted a 0–1 mark with a 4.70 ERA in six relief appearances before being optioned to Tucson on April 27. He made 11 starts for the Sidewinders, going 3–3 with a 4.80 ERA. Petit was recalled on June 27 and remained in the Majors for the remainder of the season. He made his first start of the season for the D-backs on July 2 and earned a no-decision in a 4–3 loss against the Milwaukee Brewers after allowing only one run on two hits with four strikeouts in six innings. He held opposing batters to a .216 batting average for the season, including a .213 average as a starter. In 2009, Petit was mainly a spot starter for the Diamondbacks rotation and went 3–5 with a 4.31 ERA in 19 games, eight starts.

On August 4, 2009, Petit took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates before it was broken up in the eighth with a single by Ronny Cedeño. It was the only hit he allowed in eight innings. He finished the season 3–10 with a 5.82 ERA in 23 games, 17 starts.

Seattle Mariners

Petit was claimed off waivers by the Seattle Mariners on November 5, 2009.[6][7] He was designated for assignment on February 6, 2010. On February 9, Petit cleared waivers and was sent to Triple-A. On March 17, he was released. However, he re–signed to a minor league deal 10 days later.

In 2011, Petit played for the Oaxaca Warriors of the Mexican League.[8]

San Francisco Giants

Petit signed a minor league contract with the San Francisco Giants for the 2012 season.[8] He made his Giants debut as the starting pitcher on September 23, in place of Tim Lincecum, in a move to rest the regular rotation, since the Giants had clinched the NL West division title the day before. Petit allowed 2 runs and 7 hits in 4 2/3 innings in that effort; he was not the pitcher of record in a Giants loss.

Petit began 2013 with Triple-A Fresno, but on July 23, he was called up to help the pitching staff during a double-header. He pitched in the first game of the double-header after Eric Surkamp had a poor start. In 5.1 innings, he struck out 7 and gave up 2 runs. On July 28, he was designated for assignment.[9] Petit subsequently cleared waivers and was sent back to Fresno. He was recalled by the Giants on August 23, as a starter.

On September 6, 2013, making just his third major-league start of the year since joining the rotation as an injury replacement, Petit came within one strike of pitching a perfect game against his former team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was broken up on a single by pinch hitter Eric Chavez on a 3-2 count with two outs in the ninth inning. Petit would get the following out, finishing the game with 7 strikeouts and no walks on 95 pitches. The Giants won that game 3-0. The game was Petit's first career complete game and shutout.[10] He was the 12th pitcher in MLB history to lose a perfect game with two outs in the 9th inning.[11]

Petit pitching for the San Francisco Giants in 2014

During the 2014 season, Petit worked mostly in relief, with occasional starts.[12] Making a spot start in place of the injured Matt Cain on July 22 and giving up five runs (increasing his season ERA to 4.11[12]), Petit recorded the last out of the fifth inning and subsequently proceeded to post six consecutive perfect relief appearances, of lengths varying from 1 to  4 1⁄3 innings, totalling 38 consecutive retired batters.[13] On August 28, Petit returned to the Giants starting rotation in place of Tim Lincecum and set down the first eight Colorado Rockies to set a new MLB record for consecutive batters retired at 46 (over a period of eight games), breaking the record of 45 formerly held by Mark Buehrle. Buehrle's streak included his perfect game and the starts before and after. Buehrle had broken a 1971 record of 41 consecutive retired batters that had been set by Jim Barr over the course of two complete-game wins, from the third inning of one to the seventh inning of the next; Barr's mark had been tied in 2007 by Bobby Jenks over the course of 14 relief appearances. He also broke Buehrle's record for consecutive perfect innings pitched by 0.1 with 15.1. After giving up a third-inning double to opposing pitcher Jordan Lyles to snap the streak, Petit proceeded to complete six innings, allowing four hits and a run, to record the win and reduce his season ERA to 3.44.[12][13][14]

In the Giants 18-inning victory over the Washington Nationals in the second game of the 2014 National League Division Series, Petit pitched 6 shut-out innings to get the win, as Brandon Belt hit the game-winning home run in the 18th.[15]

In Game 4 of the 2014 National League Championship Series, Petit pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Ryan Vogelsong that gave the Giants time to erase a 4-1 deficit.

With the Giants' victory over the Kansas City Royals to secure the 2014 World Series title, Petit became the only professional baseball player to win both the Little League World Series and the MLB World Series.[1]

Washington Nationals

Petit reached free agency after the 2015 season. The Washington Nationals announced on December 14, 2015, that he accepted a one-year deal with an option for a second year, which was declined.[16]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Crawford, Aimee (August 24, 2015). "From Little League to the major leagues". ESPN. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Mets, Marlins complete Delgado trade". Sporting News. sportingnews.com. November 24, 2005. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
  3. ↑ Tristan H. Cockcroft (March 26, 2007). "Trade Spin: Jorge Julio sent to Florida". ESPN. insider.espn.go.com. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
  4. ↑ Steve Gilbert (February 5, 2009). "D-backs facing tough choices in camp". Major League Baseball. arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Arizona Diamondbacks Bullpen Battle". Scout.com. eastcarolina.scout.com. March 21, 2009. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
  6. ↑ Jim Street (November 5, 2009). "Mariners claim Petit off waivers". Major League Baseball. seattle.mariners.mlb.com. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Mariners claim Petit off waivers from Arizona". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. seattlepi.com. November 5, 2009. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
  8. 1 2 Schulman, Henry (March 28, 2012). "Good day for SF Giants Petit, Schierholtz, Bumgarner and Crawford". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
  9. ↑ Owens, Andrew (July 28, 2013). "Giants officially add Moscoso, drop Petit". SFGiants.com. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  10. ↑ Schulman, Henry (September 7, 2013). "Yusmeiro Petit falls one strike short of a perfect game for SF Giants". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Eric Chavez's 2-out, 2-strike hit in 9th ends Yusmeiro Petit's perfect bid". ESPN. scores.espn.go.com. September 6, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 Yusmeiro Petit 2014 Pitching Gamelogs, Baseball-Reference.com
  13. 1 2 Schoenfield, David (August 28, 2014). "Yusmeiro Petit's awesome MLB record". ESPN MLB. Retrieved August 28, 2014. A play-by-play of all 46 outs is listed.
  14. ↑ Ortiz, Jorge L. (August 28, 2014). "Giants pitcher Yusmeiro Petit retires 46 straight for MLB record". USA Today. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
  15. ↑ Schulman, Henry (October 4, 2014). "Belt's blast in 18th puts Giants in driver's seat". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  16. ↑ Johnson, Chris (December 14, 2015). "Nationals finalize deal with Yusmeiro Petit, sign Nick Masset". MASN Sports. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yusmeiro Petit.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.