A Wednesday night game between the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals with no playoff implications wouldn't typically catch the attention of Canadians, but Tuesday night's matchup had the attention of the Battlefords.
North Battleford's own Andrew Albers made his Major League Baseball for the Twins and didn't disappoint.
Joining one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball, the 27-year-old rookie looked far from out of place. Albers pitched into the ninth inning without allowing a run. He gave up only four hits and one walk. Albers was two outs away from registering Minnesota's first complete game shutout of the season.
Albers also had two strikeouts, both coming against a fellow Canadian, George Kottaras.
"It was a pretty good one, pretty special to go out and have a debut like that and couldn't be happier," said Albers, the first Saskatchewan-born major leaguer since 1991.
He was put into a tough position, going up against one of the top teams in baseball. In their last 10 games, including Tuesday's loss, the Royals have an 8-2 record and are making up games in the wild card race at an impressive pace. That didn't seem to faze Albers. He managed to throw strikes and not get intimidated and the offence helped, putting up seven runs.
Albers faced a tough road to the big leagues. Far from a top prospect, Albers was drafted in the 10th round by the San Diego Padres in 2008 out of the University of Kentucky. A year removed from the draft, he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2009, leaving his baseball future in jeopardy.
"When I was about four months [after surgery] and had very little range of motion, to be honest I didn't care if I could ever play baseball again," he said. "I just wanted to be able to move my arm and that's the kind of thing that you go through and certainly puts things in perspective for you."
Albers said the adversity he faced went a long way towards preparing him mentally for Tuesday.
"It's all about finding the way to overcome that adversity and a way to overcome the stigma of being a kid from Saskatchewan, of being a soft-throwing left-hander. There's a lot of people having doubts about you, thinking that you're not good enough to be there," Albers said.
A 27-year-old left-handed pitcher, whose fastball tops out in the mid-80 miles per hour range, doesn't jump off the page as a prospect for most teams. But no one can deny Albers' calm demeanour on the mound Tuesday, even when he allowed two base runners in the ninth inning, was at least partially due to his long path to the majors.
"There were a few nerves, I mean they weren't too bad," he said. "Fortunately over the last couple years I've got the chance to pitch in some pretty big games for the national team and I think that really helped me deal with the nerves and allowed me to calm down going into last night's game."
Albers got the call up to the Twins when fellow Canadian pitcher Scott Diamond was demoted to AAA after struggling through the first few months of the season. The demotion came Thursday. Albers was the early front-runner for the chance to replace Diamond, but his promotion didn't come until Saturday, leaving two long days of wondering.
"That first night was kind of stressful and didn't get a lot of sleep that night and obviously [Saturday] once my manager finally told me that I was getting the call it was pretty exciting, pretty overwhelming feeling. You think of all the hours that you put in, all the hard work that's gone into it, all the ups and downs and finally getting the shot in the big leagues," said Albers.
A bonus he has as a Canadian baseball player is the nationwide support he receives.
"That's one of the nice things about the country, at least when it comes to baseball, maybe not so much for hockey with the rivalries and everything, but for baseball, usually probably everybody wants to see you do well and wants to see you succeed," he said.
As a fresh face to the big league club, Albers isn't guaranteed any certain number of games, but after a dominant debut he looks to have bought himself some time. One date of significance, if he can keep the strong play going, is Sept. 6 when the Toronto Blue Jays head to Minnesota.
For right now, Albers will have to focus on having one good game at a time. His next turn in the rotation is set for Sunday in Chicago to take on the White Sox.
