OTTAWA-Andrew Albers could not have written a better script for his Major League debut.
Facing the Kansas City Royals in front of family and friends at Kauffman Stadium, the native of North Battleford, SK tossed 8 1/3 innings of shutout baseball and earned the win as his Minnesota Twins went onto a 7-0 victory.
“It was special -- no question," Albers said in an interview with MLB.com.”It's hard to put into words, but it was special.”
Albers gave-up only four singles and walked only one batter, while striking out two.
Coincidentally, both of Albers strikeouts came at the expense of fellow Canadian George Kottaras of Markham, ON.
Albers was given a 3-0 lead to work with before he even took the mound as the Twins scored three runs in the top of the first.
Justin Morneau, being the proud Canadian that he is, played a big part in giving his new Canadian teammate the lead when he belted a two-run homer off Royals starter James Shields in the three-run first.
Albers’ first pitch to leadoff hitter Lorenzo Cain in the bottom of the first went for a strike and after surrendering a one-out single in the first, he went onto to retire 15 batters in a row before Alcides Escobar singled to right field.
After giving up a lead-off single in the ninth, Albers walked a batter with one out and was removed from the game to an appreciative ovation from the Royals crowd.
Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire did not want to remove his starter from the game, but given the circumstances felt it was the right thing to do.
"I did not want to go out there and take him out," Gardenhire said. "He was totally out of gas at the end and I didn't want to see him walking off at the end after giving up a hit or something crazy. But, wow, that was fun to watch.”
